Twisted Path
by Nechangi
Summary: After being kidnapped at a young age Shinichi repressed what happened, but he kept living with his new parents. His dream was to be a detective, but living with his criminal family sets him off on the wrong path. Kaitou KIDxNight Baron, ShinKai/KaiShin
1. Changed Circumstances

A/N: The first chapters are dark, but it gets better in the third  
Review and tell me what you think :)  
I'll try to keep the chapters somewhat short, but I seem to have... issues...

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 6  
Uploaded: 2012-08-05  
Chapter rating: K+  
Words: 1,700

First Summary:  
When the twins, Destiny and Fate, were busy arguing over a prank Fate pulled on her favoured detective, Lady Luck had mercy upon the life of the boy they were playing with and took him in as her own protected one, and allowed him to meet her beloved magician. But was the damage they had done reversible? And would he become who he wanted to be?

* * *

**Chap. 1  
Changed Circumstances **

This story is about a young boy, or maybe not a boy; he's a young man, a teenager, on a rooftop, waiting for a strange thief in a white suit, white hat and monocle.

When he read about the Gentleman Thief, Kaitou KID, 1412, whatever you'd like to call the criminal, he'd been surprised by his return, fascinated by the fact that he returned what he stole. And that was why this teenager was sitting on a rooftop in a dark grey hoodie, with a black scarf covering his nose and mouth, hiding by the far end of the roof, waiting in the darkness, knowing that he was concealed enough not to be seen.

Destiny had decided that his name would be Kudou Shinichi and that he would become one of the greatest detectives in the world as a gift for her boyfriend Death, but her younger twin-brother Fate had decided to play her a little prank. A harmless prank in his eyes, and a harmless prank in the grand scheme of things, but not a harmless prank for the life of the teenage boy, whose name now wasn't Kudou Shinichi, and who wasn't a detective.

He had a lot of names, and each of them was as false as his many identity cards. For the moment he was Nozaki Shinichi, living in a small apartment with his father, Akihiro, and his mother, Emiko, in Japan.

"Why isn't his name Kudou Shinichi?" you might ask a bit disturbed, "and why isn't he a detective?"

Well, let me explain.

This story doesn't actually start with a teenager, sitting on a roof, waiting for a thief in white; it began a long time ago, in this boy's youth when he lived with his real parents and had his real name. Let me take you back to the moment when Fate chose to go against his sister's wishes and completely turn Shinichi's life over, just to annoy her, and let's continue the story from there.

* * *

"Aw, Shin-chan! You look so cute!" Shinichi's real mother, Kudou Yukiko giggled in delight and the young boy in a girl's dress pouted.  
"Mom!" he complained loudly as he tilted his head with a small frown inside the changing room in the store, "I don't want girl's clothes!"  
"Aw, come on, Shin-chan! Soon you'll be too big for doing this! And remember your promise!" the woman scolded lightly and the boy sighed.  
"If I'm good I'll get an ice-cream and a Sherlock Holmes' book," he recited from memory, "but if anyone at school finds out about this they'll tease me!"  
"Then don't tell them," Yukiko smiled as she stroked his hair, "change back to your own clothes and we'll buy that shirt and those pants that you liked, and then we'll go to the bookstore! How about that?" Shinichi grinned in happiness and nodded, eager to get out of the clothes.

As his mother was about to pay Shinichi ran ahead to the bookstore where he stood with his nose pressed against the glass, watching the books and people inside, playing a deducing game where he tried to look at their clothes in order to see what kind of book they would choose when suddenly something was pressed against his mouth and nose, making him faint as a woman pulled him up in a tight embrace. Shinichi's head was lying on her shoulder and his face was hidden in her hair as the woman carried him away without getting as much as a glance from the surrounding people. And like that, the boy was gone, taken away in an inattentive moment, and his life forever changed.

Yukiko looked around the bookstore, feeling how the panic rose in her chest. She called out his name, looked for him, asked if anyone had seen him and in the end called her husband, crying in the phone, telling him that their son was missing.

* * *

When Shinichi woke up he was in an unfamiliar room and immediately jumped off the bed he'd been sleeping on. The room was made out of concrete with only a door and a small window, too high for him to reach and contained nothing other than the bed and an old rug. Baffled by the strangeness of falling asleep by the bookstore and waking up there, he opened the door to see two unfamiliar people sitting by a small table; a man reading a newspaper, sipping on a cup of coffee while a woman was reading a fashion magazine in front of a laptop.

"Um, excuse me, but who are you?" Shinichi asked and eyed them in confusion. The man and woman smiled warmly at him and pulled out a chair.  
"Come here boy, what's your name and where do you live?" the strange woman asked and Shinichi felt that there was something wrong with her even though she looked friendly.  
"I'm Kudou Shinichi, I live at Beika Street 221," the boy said as he got up on the chair and watched how the man made him some toast and how the woman wrote on the computer.  
"Hello there, Shinichi-kun," the man began with a small smile, and Shinichi felt that he was dangerous, "I'm Isawa, and this is my wife Hanako." The woman nodded to her husband, took up a disposable cell and walked out of the kitchen. "We're going to be your new parents," Isawa asserted proudly after receiving the confirmation that the boy's parents had a nice house and Shinichi frowned.  
"Why? I already have parents," he questioned bewildered and the man sighed as he picked him up and placed him in his lap.  
"Well, you see, some people abandon their children when they've grown tired of them," Shinichi's eyes widened at the man's words, "and your parents sold you to us."  
"N-no," Shinichi whispered, "no, they wouldn't do that."

"I understand that it feels horrible," Isawa said quietly and held him in a hug, "but your parents didn't want you anymore, but I promise you that Hanako and I will always love you very much, like you were our own." Shinichi tore himself away from the hug and ran to the door with tears streaming from his eyes. He pulled in the handle until the man picked him up again and hugged him, hushing him quietly as he rocked him slightly.  
"Why?" Shinichi cried and his confused brain tried to solve the mystery, but he was only a child so he didn't understand, "why did they abandon me? Did I do something?"

"Some people just want small children, maybe you were getting too big," the man whispered and raised his eyebrows questioning as the woman returned. Hanako nodded with a smile; the boy's family had a lot of money that they could pay for him according to her source inside the bank. Shinichi went cold on the inside, remembering that his mother had said that he was getting too old, and he wept. The man handed him to the woman who held him as he cried his heart out at the lie of a kidnapper. Hanako let him sob as she stroke his back and walked into his small bedroom, just as Isawa unlocked the door and went to plan ahead for the money-exchange, and the disposable of the child's dead body once they'd gotten the money.

Given that Kudou Yuusaku was known to be a great detective, despite the fact of being an author, Isawa planned more thoroughly than he'd ever done, and it wasn't until a week later that the cautious man dared to call, but by that time Shinichi had become apathetic, only sitting in his room, dreaming that it was all lies and that his parents would come to get him.

* * *

Yuusaku demanded to hear his son in the phone and Isawa smirked coldly as he walked into the room with the headset in his ear.  
"Hey, Shinichi," he said to the apathetic boy, knowing that the detective could hear everything, "if you could ask your old father something, what would you ask him?"  
"What did I do for him to hate me so much?" Shinichi began crying again and Isawa seated himself beside the small boy, whispering that 'it was okay', "promise me that you'll never abandon me!" Yuusaku's heart broke when he heard his son's words and he decided that he was going to catch the son-of-a-bitch that convinced Shinichi that his father hated him.

With the deal finished and the money delivered Isawa had no use for the small child anymore, so he placed lots of garbage bags inside each other and took them to the shower. He then collected a kitchen knife which he hid underneath the carpet.

"Shinichi," he said with a smile as he awakened the small child that was sucking his thumb and carried him to the shower, "we're going to move to our real home now, so you have to take a shower." Isawa helped the boy undress and placed him in the bathtub. Shinichi directly became alert when he felt the coldness of the steel while the man pulled up the knife from underneath the carpet and raised it to kill the boy. Shinichi turned on the shower and as he got drenched in the cold water he threw himself backwards, just as the man made a strike against him and grazed him. Isawa fell into the bathtub and Shinichi stared at the small wound in his arm before he saw the shining of the knife and dashed out of the bathroom, headed for the door, which they started to leave unlocked since Shinichi only sat in his room, and ran out into the night.

As he entered an alley he felt the hard gravel underneath his feet, cutting them bloody, but he kept running. He fled, avoiding all humans, thinking that the world hated him for something he didn't understand, but what he didn't know was that soon after he fled, his father and the police force broke down the door to find the couple arguing. They stayed silent and only stated that the child ran away, but the police found the blood on the cleaned knife and the couple was later charged with multiple kidnapping-murder cases, while they avoided the death penalty by revealing where the bodies were buried. Even though the Kudou's child's body was never found they were forced to declare him dead, and Shinichi was never heard from again.


	2. Survival of the Fittest

A/N: The darkest chapter, but it gets better from here.  
So many reviews! Thank you, I didn't think that many people would like it! And I promise that it will be an interesting development! ;)

Warnings:  
Strange english, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 6-7  
Uploaded: 2012-08-07  
Chapter rating: T  
Words: 1,900

* * *

**Chap. 2  
Survival of the Fittest**

The six-year-old boy huddled behind a dumpster; he was cold and naked, and his feet were bloody. It was only in the beginning of summer and the awful smell from the garbage made him want to throw up regardless of being so hungry that he thought he would die.

Despite the odds Shinichi survived. He found some old rags which he washed up in a fountain in a park during the night; the same fountain in which he washed himself once a week. Before he found out that the best place for food was outside a large restaurant he ate whatever he found in the dumpsters; spaghetti, half-eaten hotdogs and hamburgers, rice balls and okonomiyaki. As long as he could identify it as food, he would eat it. During the still cold nights he had made friends with a stray dog, which he named Okaasan and helped obtain food by crawling into a dumpster and throwing it out to her.

They bathed and played together in the fountain in the early morning and then slept hidden in an old foxhole in the park's forest, keeping each other warm and providing company.

Shinichi just happened to look into an adjacent alley one day and saw how an entire grilled chicken was thrown away. As soon as the waiter was gone he headed for the dumpster, but to his frustration it was locked. It took him days before he managed to pick the lock which opened the container. After what he'd eaten for over half the summer the dumpster held everything he could ever dream of, and he happily ate whatever the restaurant threw away, each day picking the lock and then closing it to avoid detection.

The summer was ending and he survived with Okaasan while being able to completely avoid the company of humans. He'd become much better in hiding, climbing and picking locks, all the while being followed by his only family member, until he one day was careless.

A grim-looking man caught him as he made his way into a dumpster and held a knife to his throat as he began to undress him. Shinichi screamed as he remembered what his second father had done and the man quickly covered his mouth, but Okaasan had heard him and came running. The dog, which wasn't starved anymore due to Shinichi's help, attacked the man, while the child crawled behind the dumpster, terrified of the world and gritted his teeth with his hands covering his ears as the dog shrieked. The man ran away and Shinichi crawled out, only to find her lying on her side in the filth of the streets, dying from a deep knife wound in her torso.

"Okaasan!" Shinichi cried and stroke her fur as she weakly waged her tail a few times while letting out a small whine before closing her eyes and becoming completely still. The boy held the only family member he had close, and cried once more. He cried over the pain, loneliness, evil and injustice of the world.

Okaasan was a big dog, a German Shepherd, which he tried to take to the park so that she could be in the forest, but he couldn't even get her a couple of meters, so in the end he held into her fur as he drifted off to sleep, completely exposed to the dangers around him.

Shinichi woke up to a light in his face and stared into it.  
"Hey, boy!" someone called out to him; a man in blue shirt and pants, wearing a blue hat with an emblem in front. Scared, Shinichi fled without recognising the emblem of a police officer. The man lost him after a while, but Shinichi kept running, leaving the area he'd gotten to know and entered a new one.

Completely lost, he kept walking and running until the exhaustion became too much. He crawled underneath a wooden fence into a huge backyard. The soft grass was a pleasant exchange for the hard pavement and he snuck underneath a bush, and fell asleep almost as soon as his head touched the ground, seeing that the sky was being coloured red as the sun began to rise.

The old and rich woman, owner of the house, went out early that day to tend to her garden and found a dirty young boy, with multiple bruises over his body and a small cut along his throat. She quietly brought him inside and carefully gave him a bath. Shinichi woke up, but not enough to understand what was going on, so he just sat there with his eyes barely open, staring blankly straight forward as she cleaned him.

When Shinichi woke up he was in a bed, his hair was dry, but he felt clean and he could smell the shampoo. Confused he realised that he was dressed in a shirt and pants, both a little too big for him, clothes he didn't have before. Steps were heard outside the door and Shinichi immediately jumped off the bed to look for a place to hide.

"Ooh," the old woman said as she walked inside, seeing him disappear underneath the bed, "you don't have to be scared. I won't hurt you." She kneeled down and looked into his hiding place, seeing the scared little boy. "I thought you might be hungry so I brought you some food," a plate was placed on the floor and then pushed underneath the bed, and Shinichi could smell the delicious food; clean, newly made, warm, free from other trash and made solely for him. He pulled the plate to him and carefully began to eat it while observing the elder woman with clear, sharp eyes, ready for any attack. "So what's your name, little boy?" she asked with a smile as she laid down on her back on the floor, but Shinichi didn't answer, "my name's Chie, you can call me Chie-obaasan."

"I'm Shinichi," he mumbled quietly.  
"Hi there Shinichi, where are your parents?" The boy notably twitched at the question and grew sorrowful.  
"They sold me to a new family, and my new father hated me after a few days and then tried to hurt me with a knife, so I ran away," he mumbled quietly and stopped eating as he became unable to swallow.  
"Such awful people! To hurt a child!" Chie exclaimed in an upset voice.

* * *

Shinichi stayed underneath the bed for two weeks, only sneaking out to go to the bathroom during the night or while he heard Chie cook food for them. The old woman brought him his food and placed it underneath the bed, and then she would sit in her rocking chair, telling him stories from her life while she knitted. Her distrust for the police made her keep the boy without informing anyone, and since she once had been a teacher she taught him things that were way ahead of a pre-schooler, but he was eager to learn, happy that he'd found what he considered a new family; someone who loved him. But that happiness only lasted for one and a half years until her gambling-addicted son and his wife showed up for a visit. Shinichi hid underneath the bed as they spoke in the kitchen; he didn't trust anyone but Chie and her old friend Izumi, who came over every day for a cup of tea and a conversation, and lately to cuddle with Shinichi.

The child heard how the couple argued with the old lady and shivered as he heard a loud scream and then running steps. Someone entered the room next to his and he twitched by every loud crash the person caused as they rummaged around.

The door was slammed open and he gasped and held a hand over his mouth. He watched how the cupboards were yanked open and the person, the woman, called out to her husband as she opened the wardrobe, finding a safe. The man, who had been in the next room, showed up and started to break into the safe, but the woman heard the boy's strained breathing. When she bent down and looked underneath the bed Shinichi bolted out and ran past her.

"There's a child!" she called out, causing the man to turned around and aim a kick for him. He just barely missed and Shinichi increased his speed, but fell from it when he got to the stairs. He tumbled down and then reached the main floor of the house. When he opened his eyes he saw the blood coming from Chie's crushed skull and he ran, knowing that he would be the next victim if he didn't get away.

It was something completely different from running in snow only dressed in socks compared to running in the summer on the hard pavement with feet wrapped in rags. The snow was soft, yet extremely painful as it made his feet go numb from cold while it sometimes became razor sharp, and he would've preferred the pavement.

* * *

Lady Luck watched how Death made a move on the chessboard and then pulled up his black, red-laced pocket watch with a dissatisfied frown. He looked into the distance and then sent her a blank look as she made her own move.

"So," she began coldly, not really enjoying his quiet company, but at the moment he was the only one who was interested in a game of chess, "who is it that caught your attention enough to be watched?"  
"My gift is dying," he answered with a sigh, "he was supposed to be a soul-deliverer." Lady Luck nodded, knowing that a peaceful soul was easy to get to paradise while an unhappy soul would fight against it in order to not be reborn since they had unfinished business in their old life, and sometimes they would be so stubborn that Death had to leave them with the living. The man in a hood and long coat made a sweeping gesture and an image of a running boy was formed in the air in front of them. He made his move on the board while watching the boy fall, and force himself up.  
"And you're just going to watch?!" Lady Luck stared at him with disgust.  
"I can't do anything to stop it. I am merely Kharon the ferryman," he stated calmly and watched the boy run, but the goddess instantly saw what would happen and how to stop it, knowing that Death was hinting for her to do something. She quickly understood that she couldn't get him back to his real family, so she did the next best thing she could think of.

Death observed the small boy trip over his own feet, just underneath a streetlamp, but the child had grown too tired to get up, and the man saw that his time changed from seconds to hours. A large truck speeded past the scene; the one that would've hit the small boy and killed him if he had continued on his path.

"Torture," he said and turned to Lady Luck, "you of all people would be the last one that I would ever consider doing something like that. You just exchanged a quick death to a painful and outdrawn one."  
"Well, I'm sitting here with the painful and outdrawn one so he can't have that one," she answered muttering while forcing Destiny's plans to change and missed how the corner of the man's mouth twitched in amusement.  
"What now?" he asked, knowing that the woman would never do something without having a plan.

"Now I'm going to kick your ass," she stated with a smile and moved a piece on the board, knowing that she was the only one who could thwart both Destiny and Fate, even if they united against her.

* * *

A/N: Kharon the ferryman - From Greek mythology, carries souls of the deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron to Hades.

**Answer to Guest review; 'D'**  
Hmm... *checks stories* OMG! You're right! Ooh, I'm such an awful person! I just realised that I have at least two more stories that starts dark (for Shinichi) and then becomes better!

**Answer to Guest review; 'baduk'  
**Ooh! Thank you! :D  
*cough cough* well, who knows... Okay, he is, but probably not in the way you think ;)

**Answer to Guest reviews; guest0327 and midnight1906  
**Thank you! I'm really happy that you both liked it!


	3. The Law of Attraction

A/N: I couldn't leave this story with just two dark chapters! So I had to update, but now I'm going back to OFAW, since I'm stuck...

Hey, I just met you,  
And this is crazy,  
But here's an update,  
So review it, maybe?  
(God... I'm obsessed with memes)

Bow – front of a ship

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 7  
Uploaded: 2012-08-09  
Chapter rating: K+  
Words: 1,600

* * *

**Chap. 3  
The Law of Attraction**

A man ran along the streets. He was dressed in a warm dark jacket and had a very large bag hanging from his shoulder. His dark, brown hair was wild and ruffled from the wind while his lips held a grin of excitement. The man looked Japanese despite being American, but that was just the mask that covered his face.  
"Sat-chan!" the woman running behind him called out and he turned around, gripped into her hand and dragged her along. The woman was dressed in an expensive black coat, gloves, hat, high boots and very luxurious jewellery while wearing an equally delighted grin on her face, and carrying a large bag, just like the man's.  
"Come here my love, Avaron!" he said and pulled her into a spin, holding her close to his chest and stole a quick kiss from her lips before they continued running.

Three police cars and two ambulances were inspecting a crash between two large trucks that had blocked the way, and only luck explained why no one had gotten hurt. The couple wanted to avoid officers at all cost so they ran along an alley that exited near the bay.

Avaron glanced to her right, locking her gaze with the pleading blue eyes of a small boy. The child's head fell back into the snow and she stared at him.  
"Satoru! Look!"  
The man glanced to her and then followed her gaze before they both stopped running and Avaron quickly made her way to the boy's side. She opened her long coat and wrapped it around herself as she held the boy to her chest inside it.

"Hey, boy," Avaron asked gently as she stood up, "where are your parents?"  
"They sold me," came the quiet whisper as the child fainted and the couple sent each other a horrified glance before the woman smiled while Satoru grinned.  
"Ooh, my love! I can see that you've give birth to our son!" he commented and wrapped his arms around the woman, holding them both in a protective embrace, "and I always imagined that we would steal our son or daughter from a foster home! But it seems like the Gods gave us a gift from above!"  
"Oh! Sat-chan! I knew that we would become a family!"  
"Come on! Let's hurry and smuggle him onto the ship!" the man took the child into his own jacket and continued running

* * *

Death closed his watch after he watched the time disappear.  
"Impressive," he commented and Lady Luck made another move on the board; it was her sneaky third move in a row.  
"Checkmate," she said with a challenging smile and got up from the seat. Death gave the board an amused glance before he tipped over his king; no one could win against Lady Luck, not when she never followed the rules. The goddess grinned as she walked away; she had known how the couple would react once they found the child. She knew that they lived in the present, did things in the spur of the moment and becoming parents was just logical in their eyes. The woman enjoyed watching their bravados and feats, and gave them the luck they needed to get away. She liked that they were just as mischievous as her and didn't follow the rules as long as it wasn't hurting anyone too badly.

* * *

The couple snickered as they opened their bags and then undid the shell to two large, black suitcases that they had left hidden in an alley beside the luxury cruise ship. They quickly took the money from their bags and filled up the hollowness of the suitcases' shell. Satoru placed a cap on his head, hid a secondary bag inside his empty one and handed Avaron their son as he moved some clothes from 'his' suitcase into his own bag and stood up.

"Be prepared," he mumbled and sent a glance to her half-filled bag of money. She nodded enthusiastically and he walked out from the alley, knowing that it was too dark for anyone to see him. He greeted the guards at the end of the boarding gangway and let them examine his bag as he spoke and joked with them. They knew each other, or so the guards thought, but Satoru was the one who knew them, and not the other way around, and he walked up the gangway after they gave him back his bag. He turned as he got aboard, hastily pulling out the second bag and hiding the one with clothes in a small cabinet with a fire extinguisher.

He flattened it out, made it look like it was full and then ran down the gangway holding a little piece of trash, carrying the empty bag over his shoulder. The guards laughed; they were used to see him running up and down the gangway, but they never knew the real season as to why he did it.  
"Oh, come on!" he said with a grin and showed them the trash, "it's so unnecessary to bring waste onboard the ship!"  
"Yea yea," a guard answered with an amused grin, "you always say that!"

Satoru ran to the alley and threw the trash inside a garbage can. He took off the bag, threw it to the ground and placed the bag containing the money over his shoulder.  
"I placed him inside the bag, so be careful," Avaron whispered and he nodded before he ran back aboard the ship, tilting his cap towards the guards.

Satoru quickly made his way to their new room and whistled as he closed the door; it was large and definitely one of the most luxury ones on the ship. He took up the boy from the bag and placed him on the bed, feeling that his body temperature was very low so he hastily began to tap up a warm bath.

Avaron waited for a while in the cold and then made her way to the ship, dragging her suitcase.  
"Adachi-sama," the guards bowed towards her as she made her way to them with her head held high and a superior aura surrounding her. She sent the guard beside her a glance and handed over her passport, ticket and bag, "you are aware that we will be deploying soon."  
"Yes, of course," she said in an irritated voice, "my husband will be arriving soon; it's him your worried about, isn't it?"  
"I'm deeply sorry Adashi-sama," the guard stated, "I was inconsiderate. I hope you'll have a great trip." Avaron walked away with a heated huff, tearing her bag from the guard's hands.

"Rich people, I can't stand them," he muttered to the others once the woman disappeared from sight, "some of them are okay, but her, I hate her, and I don't get how her husband can stand her."  
"Mark, she probably doesn't act like that towards her husband."

* * *

"Sat-chan," she called out as she closed the door to the Adashi-couple's room.  
"In here," he answered and she walked into the bathroom, whistling impressed at its size.  
"They are about to deploy. My husband needs to arrive," she stated as she threw her winter clothes to the floor and took Satoru's place beside the Jacuzzi and held the boy's head over the water.  
"I'm going," he said as he ran to the mirror to change his face for another, and as soon as he was done he picked up a rope and put on an expensive jacket. He opened the door carefully, checking that no one was there and then ran through the corridors to the bow of the ship, avoiding people by hiding.

Satoru tied the rope to the railing at the absolute peak and grinned as he walked backwards, stretching it to its full length; this was the part that he loved. He looked around, despite knowing that the deck was closed off for the moment and then ran towards the sea, jumping over the railing and swinging himself around the ship's front towards the pier. If he hadn't been forced to stay quiet to avoid detection he would've called out in joy and laughed as he almost touched the water before he released the rope and landed on his feet in the snow on the ground. He crouched down, making sure that no one had seen him, and then made his way to the alley by going a detour to remain obscured.

He took his suitcase and ran to the ship as he heard the horn signalling that departure was imminent and he watched how they began to move the guards aboard. Satoru cleared his voice and called out in a lower tone of voice.

"Oi! Wait for me!" he shouted and two guards stopped down on the ground.  
"I am so terribly sorry that I am late!" he panted as he reached them and handed over his passport, ticket and bag.  
"You made it just in time Adashi-sama, your wife arrived half an hour ago," Mark stated with a polite smile and Satoru nodded as they walked up the gangway.

"Thank you for telling me! You have no idea how happy I am that she got here safely! That's more than the service that you're getting paid for and I am really grateful for the information," he stated and held a large note towards the man, "keep this as thanks and buy yourselves a beer, since I can't buy you one."  
"We can't accept this," the man declared, but Satoru only placed the money in his hand and closed it.  
"But no one will know," he said and walked to the room that he and Avaron had stolen. The guard looked at the note in his hand and shrugged.  
"Well, her husband wasn't that bad," the other guard confessed, "and you're buying me a beer later."

* * *

A/N; I'm using (Google.)translate to translate a couple of words, so I hope that the words are correct XD

* * *

**Answer to Guest review; 'midnight1906'  
**Yes, but not soon.  
Thank you! :D

**Answer to Guest review; 'D'  
***Gasp* And I didn't even notice! Well, he won't die, and everything gets better :)  
Thank you, it's great that you think that! I wasn't sure if I was using too little description and too much dialogue ;)

**Answer to Guest review; 'guest0327'  
**Oh, God, you're all going to turn me into a pile of mushiness! -^u^-  
I'm so happy that you say that! Thank you! :D


	4. A Family of Three

A/N: I think that both Yuusaku and Yukiko began teaching Shinichi things at a young age, like math and language, given that he played by himself, acting out scenes from books together with his toys.

Stowaway – a trespasser on a ship  
Colour coded wristband - some cruise ships have these for children so that if they gets lost, or are in an accident can easily find their parents.

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 7  
Uploaded: 2012-08-12  
Chapter rating: K+  
Words: 1,700

* * *

**Chap. 4  
A Family of Three**

Lady Luck sighed as she watched a woman in the room next to Avaron pour poison into a glass of champagne, thinking that her boyfriend was stealing her jewellery, selling it and buying new ones for his mistress, and she was wrong. The goddess muttered a vile curse and without delay found herself in Death's presence; he didn't look pleased, so she could only assume that this situation was completely Fate's fault.

"He's ruining everything. My gift will only have half an hour left until he dies if that woman starts killing," Death muttered and Lady Luck pursed her lips, silently wondering what Destiny saw in the normally quiet, careless and cold eyed man, sure, his skin was fair and seemed to just call out 'touch me' while his dark, long hair was almost always made onto a braid, but it was mostly obscured by his hood, and Lady Luck found herself wondering, from time to time, why he even took the time to braid his hair when he was just going to cover it up.

The woman walked up to the man, but tripped on her own bag and dropped the glasses to the ground, breaking them.  
"Aika, are you all right?" he asked concerned as she fell, and looked like she was going to cry.  
"Yes," she replied quietly and went back to pour two new glasses, but before she had the time to pollute one of them she heard the man approach her, so she hid the toxin in her pocket.  
"Aika," he said in a warm voice and wrapped an arm around her waist while holding the other out in front of her. His hand contained an opened box with a ring inside, "will you marry me?" The woman broke down in tears and clung to his neck while he blinked in confusion; that hadn't been the reaction he expected.

Death made a small noise and disappeared to do his job while Lady Luck frowned; he hadn't even said 'thank you' for that, and the goddess went back to study the young boy, who woke up in the bathtub.

Shinichi looked around and blushed; there was a woman in the water together with him, sitting behind him.  
"Good morning, sleepy," she smiled warmly and the boy blinked, seeing only open friendliness and joy in her eyes, "I'm Avaron, what's your name?" He blinked at her in confusion. He had no idea how he made it from the freezing snow to a pleasantly warm bath. She giggled and hugged him gently, nuzzling his hair with a content sigh. "You know, I always wanted a son," Avaron whispered and placed a kiss on his forehead, "and now I finally have one." She kept holding him and he slowly relaxed and accepted that he had a new mother, thinking that that was how the world actually worked.

"I'm Shinichi," the boy answered after a while and Avaron smiled happily, "I kill people."  
"Hah?" the woman stared shocked into the boy's blue eyes, seeing that he actually believed it, "that can't be true."  
"My first family sold me, my second father tried to kill me, a stranger tried to kill me and then killed my friend instead, and then Chie-obaasan was killed by her son. People die around me; I think that's why everyone tried to kill me, because they knew that I kill people," Shinichi said sorrowfully and Avaron gave him a tight embrace.

"There are such things called coincidences. You just had a rough start on your life," his new mother stated and he found himself loving her voice; it was gentle and lively, calm and mischievous, and it reminded him a bit of his first mother, but he was starting to forget her. Shinichi couldn't even remember her name as his brain had begun to repress the memories of his childhood in order to not feel the pain of what he'd lost.

"Marco!" a happy voice sung from outside and Shinichi tensed as he heard the noise of the rope being dropped to the floor.  
"Polo!" the woman giggled and the boy in her arms lowered himself into the water so that only his nose and eyes were above the surface, "Sat-chan, our son is awake!"  
"Ooh!" Satoru opened the door and smiled at Shinichi, but the boy only stared at him with wide and scared eyes, which made the man pout, "I don't think that he likes me."  
"He's had it rough," Avaron hugged him, "he even thinks that people dies because of him."  
"Oh," the man seated himself beside the door, leaning against the wall as he pulled off the mask, immediately making Shinichi gasp and get curious about him since he couldn't feel anything dangerous from him.  
"Who are you? A secret spy?" he asked and only peaked over the edge, observing the man that obviously would become his father.

"Simon Young, and I'm not a spy," the man made a salute with a happy grin, "and you can call me Satoru, but most of all I'd like it if you would called me Otou-san. How old are you?"  
"Seven," Shinichi mumbled.  
"How good is your English?"  
"Chie-obaasan taught me a lot! She said that I speak English like a fifth grader and can count like a sixth grader!" the boy beamed happily, very proud over his advanced skill and Chie's praise.  
"Ooh!" the man exclaimed with a whistle and smiled eagerly, "we have to check what kind of things you know and then we will know how advanced you are."  
"I like learning things!" Shinichi beamed, already liking the man with honest eyes, glittering with mirth.  
"And I like teaching things! I'm really good in math, physics, English, lock picking, code breaking and finding marks!" Shinichi never noticed that the man had slowly eased himself over to the Jacuzzi until Satoru stroke his wet hair.

"I can pick locks!" Shinichi smiled at the man who seemed to get even happier.  
"I can't wait until we can perform thefts together as father and son!" Shinichi frowned at the statement, knowing that something was wrong with it, but pushed the thoughts away as the man lifted him out of the bath and spun him around while holding him in a hug, chuckling happily. The boy laughed as they both fell into the Jacuzzi, already loving the childish playfulness of his new father and hugged his wet suit while he eased back so that he sat beside his wife. The couple smiled at each other and then gave Shinichi a happy grin.

"There are a few things that you need to know," Satoru began slowly and Shinichi glanced up and was caught in his serious gaze, "we often changes names, and it's really important that you remember what name is yours at the moment. Can you do that?" Shinichi nodded seriously, wanting to show his new parents that he was good, so that they would keep him. "Good, and we have multiple roles we play throughout the day. Different names goes with different clothes. For example, when your mother wears that necklace," Shinichi looked to the necklace, studying it so that he would always recognize it, "and is seen by any other than me she will pretend that she despises you." The boy blinked and then nodded after a while.

"Like in a movie or a theatre; she's pretending to be someone else other than mom." Both his parents smiled at him when he said it and he felt himself blush from their happiness.  
"Exactly like in a theatre!" Avaron stated with a smile, "and when your father wears that black suit he'll be nice to you, but he will pretend that you're not his son, he will also have another face and a darker voice, so it will be easier for you to see the difference!"

"Oh, and one more thing," Satoru smiled, "I have to get you a ticket, a colour coded wristband and a passport so until I've given you that you have to stay inside this room and hide if anyone comes in here." The man hugged him and continued, "I don't want anyone to find you and take you away."  
"I don't want that either," Shinichi stated and hugged him back, "I like you, you are nice, and I'll be good so you won't hurt me."  
"I will never hit you or anything like that," the man said and Avaron hugged them both, placing her head on Satoru's shoulder and looked up at him, smiling lovingly.

* * *

Days went by on the ship and the real Adachi couple was found tied up in a hotel room, where they had lost a fifth of their fortune without knowing who had drugged them, taken their credit cards and emptied their bank account. Their tickets, or rather, the well made copies of their tickets were just thrown away since they'd missed the ship, and decided to take a plane back and little did they know that the culprits were clinking their glasses together, sitting in loungers on the upper deck letting the warm sun bathe them while the man taught their new child how to look adorable in order to attract women, but Shinichi didn't know that it was in order to steal their wallet.

"Okay, and now tilt your head," Satoru smiled and Shinichi pouted as he tilted his head, making his father grin happily, "that's great! Now lean your head back a little, look up and show your mother!" Avaron turned to them and Shinichi tilted his head, making the woman squeal and pull him into her arms, hugging him tightly.  
"So cute!" she giggled and Shinichi blushed.

"Excuse me for disturbing you, Mr. Smith," a guard walked up to them and Satoru smiled at him.  
"Michael, you can never disturb me! You're always pleasant company," he said and the guard smiled at his 'friend'.  
"I just have to inform you that we have a stowaway on the ship and that multiple objects have been stolen." The couple sent each other a glance, silently asking the other if they were the one who stole, but seeing the same question in the other's eyes made them realise that there were a third thief on the ship. "Mostly jewellery has been stolen, so we recommend that you keep an extra eye on your possessions."  
"How horrible!" Avaron uttered in an upset voice, with a hand over her chest while the man bowed his head and left.

The couple watched the guard warn other passengers and as soon as he left the deck they grinned towards each other.  
"Thief hunting?" Satoru asked grinning.  
"Thief hunting," Avaron answered equally as exited and Shinichi looked from his father to his mother, knowing that something was up.

* * *

A/N; Okay, maybe Shinichi began trusting them a little too fast, I thought that he should make a scene at first but I decided not to.

**Answer to Guest review; 'guest0327'  
**Thank you, and yes, Shinichi's life does get better!


	5. The Birth of Night Baron

A/N: I realised that this chapter was mostly like a summary of his childhood, or something... I hope you'll enjoy it anyway. :)

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 7-13  
Uploaded: 2012-08-16  
Chapter rating: K+  
Words: 1,900

* * *

**Chap. 5  
The Birth of Night Baron**

Soon enough, Shinichi got used to his strange parents, who had three rooms and three different names, whereas Shinichi had only one and lived in one room even though he was allowed to enter the other two as long as no one saw him. From time to time he would wake up in the cabin and be alone, but his parents never left him like that for long and sometimes they would start dancing with each other all of a sudden and then pick him up to dance with them. They were odd and completely obsessed with finding the thief; a game which he happily took part in since he could run around and observe people without them as much as batting him an eye. His father had even told him that it was more than okay for him to play detective as long as he didn't get caught by the thief. Satoru told him that he should look for a person that was studying others and their actions.

Shinichi had proudly showed his father a person that he accidently saw sneaking into a room and then been showered in praise and treats. The boy loved the restaurant with red carpeted floor, red table cloths covered by a sheet of glass and warm lighting, and after he gave the waitresses one of his 'look at me, I'm more adorable than a puppy'-look they often gave him an extra piece of chocolate or an extra large ice-cream. When the thief late that at night returned to his room he discovered that he'd been deprived of all jewellery he'd stolen and only found a note saying 'Thank you for your effort. Better luck next time'.

* * *

They arrived in America after a month on the cruise ship and Shinichi had been carried into a country where he barely understood the language. His mother and father taught him much at home and in the streets while they moved around, staying a few months on every place, and every time he went to school he always had an identity that was older than he was while he worked as a pickpocket and a shoplifter. He quickly discovered that his parents loved a life in luxury, which he quickly got used to, and therefore often had to steal and scam others to gain more money; he knew that it was wrong, but after living with it for years that kind of nobility became worn down and he began seeing it as something natural.

People began dying around him again and his parents mostly hid whenever it happened, but he'd been intrigued by it and began reading up on detective work, which made him stay at the library and in the end he found himself in the mystery section among the detective novels.

Shinichi had stared at a book in his hands with a frown; 'The Sign of Four'. It somehow felt familiar and for some reason it was to him like picking up an old and long forgotten friend when he began reading it, remembering a story he'd forgotten and a smiling man in a large library sitting behind a desk; a familiar man he didn't know, in a library he didn't recognise as his brain had by that time fully repressed all his memories from his childhood and replaced them with imaginary ones containing his new family. All Shinichi knew was that he'd always lived in America and a long time ago been on a big cruise ship, but they'd been on two other cruise ships since then.

At the age of ten, he began studying investigative methods and deductive reasoning, reading up on everything criminal-related, which in the end found him a new book series that became his favourite, together with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's, from a man by the name of Kudou Yuusaku; an author and a detective, who had lost a son to kidnappers and had a daughter of two years of age. Yuusaku stayed as a detective and moved on with his life despite never giving up the search for his son's dead body, regardless that his son's fingerprints were found on a crime scene whereas both murderers were found dead later on. Shinichi loved to read about Night Baron, a phantom thief, gentleman and sometimes coldblooded murderer, which the author hadn't revealed the identity of and Shinichi couldn't figure out who he was.

Satoru, who was fluent in over ten different languages, always taught him things whenever they were out and they often took long walks, stealing a wallet or two while talking in Spanish, French or German as they studied people, their manners and personality. Shinichi could speak fluent Japanese and English by that time and mimic many different dialects, but the other languages weren't nearly as good, even though he could speak in an accent. The man taught him how to escape, disguise, fight, climb and blend into crowds, and on Shinichi's twelfth birthday his father brought him to his first break-in even though he supported his son's wish to become a detective one day. Shinichi knew that his dream was far away since he always had a false identity and was a thief, but that didn't stop him from pursuing his dream. He could become anyone he wanted with the help of his mother; all he needed was finger seals and another identity, one he would call Arthur Holmes.

* * *

Satoru was dressed in dark grey clothes with a cap, hood and a scarf covering his face while Shinichi was wearing dark blue clothing, a beanie, and the same kind of mask that the Night Baron wore. They both had a dark backpack and skin gloves. His father watched how he carefully hacked the alarm code and stopped him when he was about to make a mistake, showing him how to do it right.

They quietly entered the shopping mall through the backdoor and hid before they hacked into the security cameras to make them loop, knowing how to walk as to not be seen by the patrolling guards.

Quickly they made their way to the jewellery store where Satoru broke them in and deactivated the alarm while Shinichi studied what he did so that he would be able to do it the next time. His father immediately went to the back and began trying to get the safe open while Shinichi opened the display cases, and before he started filling his backpack with the rings, earrings and necklaces he looked up towards the recording cameras that they didn't even bother with, since they weren't a direct threat when no guard was watching.

Shinichi worked fast with nimble and experienced hands as he collected the jewellery, going for the most valuable and leaving the cheap. When he heard the handle to the safe open he immediately made his way to the back, joining his father in taking the gold, diamonds and cash. As soon as he felt that the backpack had gotten the weight he could carry without diminishing his speed he stopped filling it and instead went back to the shop to study the remaining jewellery.

Satoru clicked his tongue to alert his son that he was passing behind his back like a ghost and Shinichi followed him out though the door and through the long hallways back to the same way they entered, but before they'd gotten halfway red lights came on and the alarm started blaring as the guards had discovered that the cameras were looping.

The man grabbed his son's hand and ran with him through the red-lit corridors to the exit, where two guards were standing, and as soon as they saw the officers they turned around and headed the other direction, executing an escape-move they'd trained and the guards immediately followed. They turned around a corner and waited, hearing the men's steps and readying the chloroform. When both guards took the turn they were forced to the ground as Satoru tackled them with all his might. Shinichi jumped the closest and pressed his cloth over the man's nose and mouth while his father did the same thing to the other one.

As soon as the guards fainted they made their way to the exit and left just as another couple of guards came running. Satoru took a loading pallet and forced it up against the handle of the door, making it unable to open and then took his son's hand and disappeared into the night.

That was the first sighting of the Night Baron; a child getting taught by his father to steal, a child that was so completely calm and collected that he could walk around the shop looking at the jewellery like it was in the middle of the day and he was searching for a gift, however, no one knew that the Night Baron was a child, they thought that the thief might be a woman, and that was why Night Baron was shorter that the man.

Six months later the Night Baron was caught on tape, for the first time working alone, whilst his father waited outside so that he could come running in case something went wrong, and Shinichi had made a trademark for himself as he always looked into the cameras, smiling, and made sure that they knew _exactly_ who had broken in before he took what he wanted. Then he would walk around the store and sometimes take a single ring, bracelet or necklace that caught his eyes. He never broke a glass case, and never left a mess for the owners who had already lost valuables to clean. He never took more than what the shop could handle, and his thefts were neatly executed where he never tripped an alarm.

Shinichi went to nine different high schools from the age of twelve to thirteen, of course pretending to be sixteen to seventeen years of age and studied many different subjects, however, he'd been bullied because of his looks, given that he still didn't really look that old, and it always ended badly for the others since Shinichi had become a master in deceit and deception. One bully, a eighteen-year-old had forced him into multiple fights and just wouldn't stop, and since his parents always told him how important it was for him to stay below the radar he'd gotten the other thrown out by sneaking a knife into his pocket just before the security at the school went to interrogate him about the claims of sexual harassment Shinichi had filed in another students name.

It was during the summer in his thirteenth year that he saw three teenagers in a playground, where they jumped in between the bars of a large wooden ladder, took a single step on the wall of a shed and managed to get to the roof that way, jumped from one fence to the other without breaking a sweat. Intrigued, he'd just watched them train whatever they were training, seeing the possibilities of using the same kind of moves in his own line of work, as to add more to what he already knew.

"Excuse me!" he called out and ran up to them as they began to leave, "that looked interesting, what were you doing?"  
"It's called parkour," the teenager who looked like he was the oldest among them, and definitely the best of them replied with a smile, "it's a way of moving. Are you interested in trying or training with us? I promise you that you won't ever look at the world the same."  
"My name's Richard," Shinichi smiled at the man with blonde, ruffled hair, "I'd love to train with you guys." They became friends and began training, but little did Shinichi know that their friendship would end a few months later and he would be forced to flee from the police for the second time of his life.


	6. In Deutschland Erwischt

A/N: A big thanks to Sirastar who helped me with the title :D

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 14  
Uploaded: 2012-08-18  
Chapter rating: K+  
Words: 1,800

* * *

**Chap. 6  
In Deutschland Erwischt**

It was in the beginning of the winter when a scam went wrong and both of his parents were almost caught. Shinichi had been sitting at home, reading the Night Baron series when they bolted through the door and told him; "we're leaving, now!" Quickly he'd taken his credit cards and his passports without questions. He'd filled his schoolbag with a couple of changes of clothes and made sure that he had his Night Baron outfit in his suitcase and his mask in his inner pocket. Satoru was burning papers in the fireplace and Shinichi, who was used to only keeping things enough to fill his suitcase was quickly finished, so after his books and clothes had gone into it he threw the incomplete identities and all the papers that he'd been working on into the fire and watched them burn.  
"Where are we going?" he asked loudly and threw a glance over his shoulder on his parents that were busy with putting on disguises.  
"First plane out of the country," Avaron answered hastily and Shinichi nodded.  
"Are we going on different planes to other countries and then meet up somewhere?" he continued, thinking of how they nearly avoided capture once in the airport. He moved around the burnt plastic, making sure that it was forever gone.  
"Not this time, just the first one out," Satoru called out and threw a couple of jackets into his suitcase, "Shinichi, get the bags into the car! They'll be here any moment!" The youngster did as he was told and ran to the unlocked car in the garage with his bags, returned and picked up one of his mother's and one of his father's and placed them in the car too.

"Keys!" he called out and Satoru threw the car keys though the air to his son, who caught them and went to start the vehicle. Not even ten minutes had gone by before they were out of the house and let the gasoline they poured out on the floor catch fire in order to burn it to the ground, which was how the police that chased them found it twenty minutes after they'd left, and five seconds after their flight had taken off. The officers had just been standing by their cars, watching the fireman deal with the burning house and sighed before they made a call to the station to stop the criminals from passing any boarder.

On the first class plane Shinichi made his way to the phones and dialled a number.  
"Hi Eric, this is Leon," Shinichi spoke in a German accent and the man in the other end of the phone frowned as he waited for an explanation, "we're going to visit grandma in Berlin, and stay there for a while. I was wondering if we could come and visit you too?"  
"Sure, Leon," the man smirked as he realised what was going on, "I'm away for the moment, but I have a friend watching my house. Tell me when you land, and he can come and pick you up. His name is... Lupin." The man chuckled a little at his made up name, thinking that it was fitting for the thief and their conversation ended after Shinichi told him the time.

His father raised his eyebrow questioningly when Shinichi returned to his seat and he smiled at him, quietly telling him that he just fixed them German money. When they landed in Berlin and had taken their luggage they found a man, dressed as a taxi driver, holding a sign with the names; Theophraste Lupin, Henriette d'Andresy, Arsène Lupin. And the message couldn't have been clearer.

"That's too obvious," his father muttered in French and smiled at the man.  
"This way Mr. Lupin," he stated and they followed him to his cab. They placed all but one bag in the trunk and Satoru seated himself in the backseat together with his son while Avaron rode up front.  
"Take us to the Radisson Blu Hotel," she demanded with a smile and Satoru grinned, knowing that she must've booked a hotel suite while they were waiting for their bags.  
"Sure," the man smiled and drove out from the sidewalk, "in the bag you'll find what you requested for the jewellery in German money." Shinichi opened the strange suitcase that had been lying on the seat in the back and quickly counted the money with his father controlling that it was correct. The boy opened his own suitcase and picked up a large handbag, which contained gold necklaces.  
"Here's your purchase," he smiled and the man glanced back through the rear-view mirror.  
"Good," the man mumbled and drove into the sidewalk, "let me see it." Shinichi handed him the bag and the man nodded. "So, Radisson Blu, was it?" the man smiled and drove them to the hotel.

* * *

In Germany his mother helped him make two new identities, one five years older than himself; Leon Richter, which he used in his daily life while the other; Marcel Hertzog, had the same age as him and was an orphan. Marcel was an identity for safety reasons; he always had one in case he was caught so that his parents wouldn't get in trouble, and both of them had an identity saying exactly the same.

Leon Richter, a young-looking detective, solved a few cases that had just happened to take place around him, and the officers had been impressed by his deductions despite the murders being really simple cases according to Shinichi.

The Night Baron appeared a few times in Berlin and other large cities, like Munich, Dresden, Frankfurt, Bremen and twice in Prague in Czech Republic, immediately gaining the title 'Internationally wanted thief' while stealing mostly money and jewellery. Shinichi went and traded the jewellery with the man he'd met on the airport, no names were ever exchanged only numbers and purchases and he, for safety reasons, was never dressed as Night Baron when the exchange took place, which he noticed was a good idea.

Shinichi was dressed in a dark grey hoodie, dark jeans, tight gloves and had a scarf covering his nose and mouth. He surveilled the abandoned concrete building and climbed so that he could enter through a balcony on the second floor. He walked slowly through the dusk room without making a single sound, wary of any noise, knowing that someone might think that this kind of building was good for murder, and it wouldn't be the first large-scale drug exchange he'd run into.

The doorways in the hallway gaped open and he stopped beside each one and looked inside before he continued. Shinichi slowly made his way through the narrow hallway and moved from shadow to shadow, alert of any movement. When he got to the stairs he stopped to listen, a slight scraping was heard from below, and he silently made his way down to the parking garage, staring into it from the stairway.

An adult male sat on the hood of a silvery car and Shinichi recognized him as The Man, he had a dark suitcase beside his feet, which most likely contained the money. The Man yawned and stretched himself as Shinichi moved silently along the darkness by the far end of the wall, knowing that he wouldn't be able to see him, especially since he at that moment lit a cigarette. The teenager changed direction and began moving towards him, keeping a concrete column between them so that The Man wouldn't see him coming.  
"01:58," the adult mumbled to himself as he sent a glance to his watch, "he should be here any minute."

Shinichi waited behind the support pillar and watched him with the help of a small mirror on his shoe. He dropped the cigarette to the ground and Shinichi got out from his hiding place, taking a few quick and soundless steps towards the man as he crushed the cigarette with his shoe. The Man looked up and twitched back in fear, almost falling on his car as he saw the person before him that hadn't been there a second ago.  
"For the love of God!" he called out in a disturbed voice, "make some noise!" Shinichi chuckled quietly to himself and The Man shook his head as he kicked the suitcase to the thief. Shinichi bent down and examined the contents, looking for transmitters and faux money, before he took off his own backpack and threw it to the other, who also examined its contents.  
"Fine weather we had today," he commented and Shinichi narrowed his eyes; they never small talked. The noise of a car engine made him immediately grab the black suitcase and run.  
"Night Baron is escaping, you idiots," the man stated in a calm voice to seemingly no one as he seated himself on the hood of the car and lit another cigarette while he watched the back of the thief disappear up the stairwell, "I upheld my part of the deal, now you have to be true to your word."

Shinichi bolted up the stairs, hearing the blaring of police sirens coming on and seeing their blue light illuminate the cracks between the wooden boards covering the windows. He heard how the running steps of officers followed him through the darkness while they called out for his surrender and suddenly he became blinded by a single light.

"Not good," he muttered as he narrowly avoided someone who made a grab for his wrist. Shinichi ran and took a step on the wall, spinning in the air and passed the officer who held the flashlight, but collided with someone else who had been standing behind the officer with the light. His arms became constricted and an arm was firmly placed around his throat as he struggled.  
"Night Baron, you're under arrest!" the man he was fighting against growled in German.  
"I'm not Night Baron!" Shinichi immediately replied in flawless German, "I'm not! I'm Marcel Hertzog!"

Shinichi was brought to a police station for the first time in his life as a criminal where it was confirmed that he was Marcel Hertzog, fourteen years old, from Mainz, where Night Baron had saved him from starvation in the streets, and he confessed to being the thief's middleman, but told them that he'd never heard his voice or seen his face; they communicated through written messages.

Shinichi ended up in a closed juvenile detention centre without getting a chance to meet his parents, since Marcel didn't have any, but he was pretty sure that he'd seen his parents in the crowd outside the station as the media had released that they'd caught Night Baron, only to be forced to retract that statement the very next day.

The thief had swallowed the lump in his throat when he got a sentence of six months rehabilitation, and thought of escaping, but once he got there and saw the library he couldn't do anything but enjoy the stay while feeling a bit guilty about it, but knowing that his parents would probably be there waiting for him when he got out. What he never expected, however, was to meet one Aldric Wolf, fifteen years old, who only had six months left until he was released; a slightly insane person, but a thief specialising in only stealing large diamonds for good pay.

* * *

A/N; I know nothing about the German law system, or any law system, so know that this is purely fictional.

* * *

**Answer to Guest review; 'guest0327'  
**Thank you, and sorry that I forgot to answer on the last review, it's so strange to answer in the story and not as a PM. I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter! Here's the next! XD

**Answer to Guest review; 'guest1906' in chap. 4  
**Yea, I know how that feels! Thank you for the review :)


	7. Black Business Offer

A/N: Well, look at that! The chapters are getting longer... How annoying.  
The updates might come a bit slower, or a lot slower since school's starting.

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 14  
Uploaded: 2012-08-21  
Chapter rating: K+  
Words: 2,600

* * *

**Chap. 7  
Black Business Offer**

After only two weeks Shinichi was bored out of his mind, while he missed the luxury life he'd lived; the parties, the conning, the food, the mental challenges and amusement of stealing and the massages he would have at spas after a job well done. He sustained himself by reading and in annoyance tried to figure out ways to get away if he was ever cornered again. He came up with flash bombs, gas bombs, an airborne sleep inducing gas like nitrous oxide or laughing gas, but the flash bombs would blind himself just like anyone else while the gas required some kind of gasmask and a delivery system, even though gas would be the easiest to gain access to, through a hospital.

Shinichi yawned as he watched Hans play the violin accompanied by Friedrich on the piano in what could only be described as the living quarters in their section; they were quite good actually, and Shinichi felt a bit jealous of Hans as he wanted to be able to play too, but it was an unnecessary skill to have. Shinichi blinked; or was it? If he could play violin or piano he could easily infiltrate a party as a member of an orchestra.

No, the thief instantly decided, he could easier get in by either pretending to be someone or simply sneak in through a window, but he really wanted to learn how to play. The song ended and both of the convicts joked a little before Friedrich left, and Shinichi immediately approached the other teenager.  
"Hey, Hans," he said in German with a hopeful smile, "could you teach me the violin?"  
"Sure Marcel," Hans grinned and Shinichi smiled as he was handed the violin and taught how to hold it and how to play it; he sounded awful, but apparently so did Hans when he first started playing.

Shinichi smiled as he sat down by the table again and picked up his discarded book to continue the read. Someone seated themselves on the other side of the table in front of him and he immediately looked up to see a blonde teenager in a T-shirt, skinny despite showing that he had muscular arms. The blonde looked around with quick movement of his eyes and he seemed to be prepared to run any moment. He fidgeted in his seat and his muscles twitched as he returned his attention to the dark-haired teenager.

"You're Marcel Hertzog, right? Who worked for Night Baron?" the green-eyed teenager asked in a low voice and looked around to make sure that no one was close.  
"Yes," Shinichi answered and stared at the one in front of himself, "who are you?"  
"Aldric Wolf, diamond thief," the blonde mumbled and narrowed his eyes, "I've never seen you speak with Hans before today."  
"You've been watching me?"  
"No, I've been watching Hans," Aldric confessed seriously and leaned forward, "he's a snitch. If you tell him anything he'll rat you out, and you realise that if you get him to teach to the violin you're going to be indebted to him." Shinichi frowned and closed his book as he leaned forward too.  
"I know that, and you're telling me this because you want something from me," he smirked and Aldric smiled.  
"Ooh, I like you. You're direct, and you have honest eyes." Shinichi wanted nothing else but to laugh at that statement; he, just like his father, always got the comment that they looked honest, but it must be some expression they both shared. "You know Night Baron, don't you?" Shinichi stayed quiet, waiting for Aldric to continue. "Do you know what percentage he gets for what he steals?"

"30%," Shinichi murmured, knowing that it was low.  
"Wow, he's cheap," Aldric muttered and then threw glances around them to make sure that they were still alone.  
"I know. He isn't really interested in the money. The money is like a bonus," Shinichi lied and studied the person in front of him.  
"Okay," Aldric mumbled with a sly smile and continued in an even lower voice, "would he work for someone who is loyal and pays 80%?" Shinichi's eyes widened; no one paid that much. 40-50% was normal and 60% was for someone trusted, so it had to be a lie. "A friend of mine is looking for large diamonds, and pays 80%, that's why I only steal diamonds. If you give him the diamond he's looking for he'll give you 200% and this friend of mine is looking for Night Baron because he's good at what he does. Could you get in contact wi-," Aldric interrupted himself and glared at a dark-haired person passing by. "Cop!" he yelled angrily at the teenager, who only frowned at Aldric and sighed as he shook his head.

"I don't think he's a cop," Shinichi stated with a raised eyebrow, knowing that the other was getting drugs into the facility with the help of one of his friends.  
"He is! I can smell it!" Aldric asserted strongly and Shinichi deadpanned; he'd seen that the blonde had a slightly insane look about him.  
"Oh, so how many cops are there in here?" Shinichi asked and looked around the tables where some people were playing cards, writing, reading and drawing, to the two corners where two gangs of teenagers were playing videogames. Beside the wall there were an older looking teenager sleeping on the floor while a few guards and caretakers walked around, everyone on their way to somewhere.  
"Three as of this moment," Aldric murmured and leaned forward so that he was lying with his head on his arms, and Shinichi smirked.  
"Wrong," he stated silently and smirked, "there's four. Where are the cops?"  
"Trying me, are we?" the blonde smirked and didn't even look around, "one is sitting by the table playing poker, he's cheating by the way. One is playing the race car game and is losing badly, all fake of course. The last, is in the corner by the other game handing out his new drugs."  
"Wrong, Conrad that deals drugs isn't a cop, but one of the people he sells to is," Shinichi nodded towards the wall to the one who was sleeping, "and that's my personal 'please confess to me'-cop who lives in the same room as me."  
"How would you know?"

"Because I'm a detective," he smirked as the diamond thief tensed while his eyes narrowed suspiciously and Shinichi held the book to his chest, pointing to the headline with the same hand as he held it with. Aldric eyed the volume and then grinned when Shinichi continued, "the name's Sherlock Holmes."  
"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Holmes," the blonde chuckled with a distorted smile and straightened his back, "tell me how you spot the cops."  
"Elementary, my dear Wolf. Cops have tics that are trained into them, and if you trigger them you'll find the prise," Shinichi stated with a smile, "the cops they put in here are in their twenties and have a young appearance, but they still have those obvious give-aways and calluses in their hands."  
"Oh, you're good! No wonder Night Baron trusts you," Aldric smirked and the lunch-signal sounded, "Hungry? I heard that it's spaghetti today."

* * *

Aldric had decided to befriend Shinichi at all cost and get Night Baron to meet whoever his friend was. If Shinichi could use one word to describe the blonde thief he'd go with 'headstrong', or rather the word headstrong was defined by Aldric, because he was the most stubborn person Shinichi had ever met, and that included both of his parents.

After three months of constant nagging and asking questions that Shinichi didn't want to answer, he had run out of patience and slammed a book hard into Aldric's head. He'd then placed the knocked out teenager in a chair so it looked like he was sleeping on the table and left him in the library. Even if the diamond thief had gotten a little more respect for him it didn't stop him from always being in his company. Shinichi didn't manage to get away from Aldric while he, during those six months, heard that the sightings of Night Baron had moved to France and Italy, and he had to assume that it was his father who'd taken on the roll of Night Baron in order to protect him from becoming more incriminated. In the end Shinichi had decided to 'see if he could find Night Baron' for Aldric and get him to agree to a meeting, and on the night before their release Night Baron showed up in a local jewellery store and just stared into the camera before he took a single diamond ring and left, making Shinichi wonder if his parents were going to have another wedding.

* * *

Aldric kept following him after they left the gates behind themselves, even after they'd gotten back to the inner city, and Shinichi scowled at him, knowing that there would be cops on the lookout. He had to be very careful before meeting up with his parents.  
"How do you think that I'll meet Night Baron if you're with me?" Shinichi muttered annoyed, knowing that he wouldn't be able to be Marcel and Night Baron at the same time.  
"He stole a single ring last night to let you know that he's here, and he probably saw you get released, so if we go somewhere more private he should show," the blonde stated like it was obvious and Shinichi sighed.  
"Fine, but it's not my fault if he doesn't show. He might think that you're a cop, or that I'm trying to sell him out," Shinichi answered annoyed and headed into an alley, keeping a watchful eye out for anyone who was following him. Slowly he made his way to a road that lead to a garage and the street was empty, so he hoped that the police hadn't bugged him somehow. The thief was happy that the large garage was still unused after the six months he'd been away and he broke in, quickly followed by a jittery Aldric.

They sat and waited for two hours on the concrete floor before a clatter was heard and Night Baron fell down from the ceiling.  
"My, my," the man said with a smooth and pleasant voice as he came walking towards them, "I see that you brought a friend."  
"He's not a friend," Shinichi immediately replied and got up, "more of an acquaintance."  
"Ah! We finally meet, Night Baron!" Aldric grinned and flew up from the floor, "I'm a huge fan!" Shinichi felt his eyebrow twitch in annoyance, hoping that it was his father behind the mask and not a stranger.  
"Oh? I have fans?" the thief hummed and Shinichi could hear the smile in his voice, despite seeing only the creepy mask and dark eyes moving behind it.

"A friend of mine wants to meet you; he wants you to work for him. He pays 80% of the value, but he only wants diamonds. He will fill you in on what kind of diamond he's looking for when you meet him."  
"Oh, and why should I sell myself to an unnamed stranger?" Night Baron asked in that calm and complaisant voice while he sent Shinichi a glance, asking for his opinion and at the same time confirmed that it was his father in the disguise. The dark-haired teenager shrugged a little behind the blonde, not knowing if it was a good idea, even though the money-offer was more than interesting.  
"He'll meet you himself. You and he are the ones who will do the deal, never a stranger with their own agenda. I'm retiring since he's paid me a lot of money, and I'm still alive. He's honourable and loyal, just like Marcel here is to you. His name is for him to give, and employment goes from one retired person to the new one, and the new one is checked out until he's deemed safe. You, however, don't need much checking out because of the outfit, history and ability to stay hidden. You are the best there is, and he's been looking for you, but failed in finding you."

"So an old employee needs to find a new one before he gets to go," the man said and tilted his head.  
"No, not necessarily, but since I had the luck of finding Marcel and then the chance of getting to you I decided to do that. Boss is giving out a rather large reward to the one who finds you," Aldric pulled up a paper and wrote down a number, "here's a number you can call. Tell them that you're 'Knight' and they'll patch you through." The blonde handed the paper to Shinichi and took his backpack with a smile. "Farewell, Marcel, Night Baron! Now I'm officially retired, but one day I might return!" Aldric smiled and waved as he left, leaving both Satoru and Shinichi staring at the number.

"So how are things going for you and mom?" Shinichi asked with a smile and the man took off the mask, showing that he had another skin-tight, black mask which covered half of his face and left his mouth free, and Shinichi realised that it was a great thing to have, just in case he lost the white one.  
"We're doing fine. Avaron conned this millionaire so that he bought stocks from her, and I've been running around pretending to be you," his father answered with a smile and pulled him up into an unexpected spinning hug. "We've missed you so much!" he sighed as Shinichi hugged him back.  
"I've missed you too, and I considered trying to escape multiple times. I even began planning for it and found multiple holes in their security."  
"We're always here for you, you know that," his father murmured quietly and kept him trapped, but Shinichi didn't mind it, "even if you become an honest-working detective or a simple cop, as long as you don't throw us in jail." Shinichi laughed; he would never throw them in jail, he loved his parents just the way they were even if they sometimes did completely insane things.

"You know what I want?" he grinned at his father when they left after Satoru had changed into something less suspicious, and the man gave him a questioning look, "now I really need to go to a spa, have a massage, eat real food and order some room service. You have no idea how much I missed that when I was inside!"  
"Well, that's easily taken care of!" Satoru laughed and patted his son's shoulder, "and you made sure that you didn't leave any kind of fingerprints there?"  
"What do I look like? A five-year-old? Of course not, I rubbed out every single one immediately after I touched something, and I don't even think anyone saw it," Shinichi smirked at his father, "I was, after all, taught by the best." Satoru nudged his cheek lovingly. "Can I assume that Marcel Hertzog's only proof of existence is a name in an archive?"  
"Well, I am the best," Satoru grinned as they walked into a crowd, lowered his voice and leaned in, "everything that exists is the pictures of Marcel with a jacket over his head as he was brought to the police station. His fingerprints accidently ended up in a fire in the police chief's basket in the station while his file in the computer now is corrupt for some reason and if they try to fix it, his fingerprints will only show Night Baron's smile."  
"Accidently," Shinichi nodded with a smile, but then frowned, "why don't I believe you?" His father laughed at his joke and they returned to a new five star hotel, which to Shinichi's delight had a spa in the basement.

* * *

**Answer to Guest review; guest0327  
**No, they would only search in Germany (and America since that's where Night Baron first appeared, if the American government would allow that, which is doubtful). And I can't imagine that there are much trace in any system if a child lives on the street, maybe an old police rapport of Marcel doing some kind of shoplifting.  
Thank you! I will! :D


	8. The Friendly Magician, Spider

A/N:

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 15  
Uploaded: 2012-08-28  
Chapter rating: K+  
Words: 2,300

* * *

**Chap. 8  
The Friendly Magician, Spider **

Shinichi felt nervousness constrict his stomach; he'd never gotten himself a new buyer, since he'd always used the same, and he'd heard stories of how the other teenagers inside the juvenile detention centre had gotten caught because they got greedy, and Shinichi didn't want to fall into the same trap. He stared through the night vision binoculars, which he'd stolen from the military just because they claimed to have the best security and to prove them otherwise, observing the building he'd chosen for the first meeting with his 'employer'. He had explored the city thoroughly for two weeks before he'd called the number, and then he'd been busy planning the military break in for two weeks before the planned meeting. He'd taken a lot of other things from the military, but no weapons even if he'd tried out two pistols and a rifle in the shooting range after he'd tied up all the guards. He'd left the targets, simply to let everyone know that he could hit whatever he shot at.

The night was dark, and the sky was showered with stars while the crescent moon didn't provide much light and he was thereby invisible on the roof top, waiting for an unnamed man to show up. Shinichi had been on the structure all day and observed how two men had entered the building, but not come out. The headlights of a car showed up from an alley and the vehicle stopped outside the door. A man stepped out from the car, and the two men from earlier exited the building. It became obvious that they were working for the man in a suit as they placed themselves beside the door as guards while the one he had to assume was his new employer walked inside. Shinichi stood up and stretched his slightly rigid muscles. He warmed up and checked his watch; it was still half an hour left until the meeting and it was time to make his way into the building.

Shinichi ran across the rooftop and took a step on the railing of the fire escape before throwing himself over to an adjacent building two floors lower. He rolled as he struck the ground and then continued to run across the roof, watching the corner of the building with the meeting place slowly come into the right line, when it did, he ran to the edge of the roof before jumping down to a balcony and then leaping to the other building's balcony. He entered through the window and quickly surveyed the room before he did the same to the corridor. He was in a building that was supposed to have become a shopping mall with apartments on the higher floors, but for some reason the construction had stopped.

When he got down to the opened floors where escalators were supposed to carry people to the other levels he could see a man standing completely relaxed and played with a deck of cards four floors down in the weak lighting.

"Pick a card, any card," the man chuckled and spread the cards into a perfect feather, "it's the ace of spades. How strange! I only have ace of spades in this deck." Shinichi took up a modified pistol and fired it at a beam, seeing the steady line become secured around it. The magician twitched and turned on a flashlight while the thief swung out from the fourth floor and drifted downwards in a good speed.

"Ooh, that's an impressive entrance," his new employer chuckled when he touched the floor, "especially since my men have been here all day, making sure that you wouldn't set up a trap for me, and they informed me that you hadn't arrived yet." Shinichi didn't answer as he simply studied the slightly taller man in front of him, prepared to run any second. "Not much of a talker, huh?"

"Who are you?" Shinichi asked in the same dark and smooth voice that his father had used, and felt how his vocal cords almost wanted cut his voice in order to betray that he was nothing but a fifteen-year-old pubescent teenager.  
"Direct, I like it, even though you're one of the creepiest things I've seen,"

"You should see me when I sleep," Night Baron murmured and the magician laughed as he kept shuffling the cards.  
"And he has humour!" the man with spiky auburn hair smirked and cleared this throat, signalling that it was time to get down to business, "I do like the fact that you broke into that military base just to prove that you can break in everywhere; you're just what I need. Most people I hire can break into smaller facilities and steal a diamond, however, they often gets caught and that's annoying so I never show them my face, but you, ooh, you are a different story. You see, I'm working for someone, who is working for someone, who is the boss, who wants a special diamond. That person wants large diamonds and doesn't care where they're from. No jewellery, no gold, no sculptures, no art, only diamonds, the larger the better. I'll pay you 80% of its value and we will skip these remote and lonely places. When we exchange payment for work we'll meet at a café or a restaurant, share a meal and I might give you suggestions on which diamond you could target. How about that?"

"So you work for someone like Moriarty? Seems interesting," Shinichi hummed and walked closer to the man, seeing a bit of uncertainty in his eyes, "but what I was most intrigued about was the fact that you were 'loyal' according to Wolf. I don't like acquiring new buyers so I tend to stay with the same I've always had, whether they pay me good or not."  
"Ooh, I am loyal," the magician did a theatrical bow and flashed him a warm grin.  
"How do I know that you won't target me or kill me?"  
"You have nothing but the frail word of a promise, but I could say the same to you. How do I know that you won't take on the characteristic of the coldblooded murderer and add that to your resume, Night Baron?"

"Indeed, as you say… I could easily become a great assassin, but that world is too dark for my taste, while the life of a thief provides everything I could ever want. Parties by the rich, the challenge of breaking in, money, women, travel, servants," Shinichi chuckled behind the mask, lying about everything except the challenge and money, which gave him all the room service he could want. "Now tell me, who are you?"

"You can call me Spider. I'm a magician," Spider smirked hungrily, "and an assassin." At that moment Shinichi thought of running, but the assassin-part felt like a lie.  
"How fun for you," he stated instead, seemingly unfazed by the magician's reveal, "how do I get in contact with you, Spider?" The man smiled and held up a cell phone, which came from seemingly nowhere.

"Just give me a call," he shrugged and threw the phone to Shinichi, who caught it with ease, "my number is already in there. When you call, say that you're 'Knight' and want to get an appointment. And since you always show yourself on tape and the papers likes to state what you stole for I'll go after that prize. How about it?"  
"Sounds good," Shinichi murmured and grabbed into the gun hanging from the ceiling. He waited for a second, in case Spider wanted something more, and then activated the reverse on the line and disappeared into the darkness above.

* * *

Shinichi quickly found out that breaking into diamond exhibits were much harder than a simple jewellery store, but that only encouraged him further. It took him a month of planning before he struck the first diamond exhibit in a large museum in Italy, where he knew where the lasers, the pressure plats and the metal bars were. He drugged the guards' coffee just before the change of shifts and then watched how they drank it before they went to their posts. Two hours after that and there were no guards awake on the cameras or in the surveillance room, and the only thing that was seen was Night Baron, calmly walking through the building and deactivating the security with the help of security cards and alarm codes.

Shinichi opened the display cases and placed diamond after diamond in his pockets, ignoring the ones that were smaller than three centimetres. His watch beeped and he counted down from ten before the alarm started ringing and the iron bars fell from the ceiling. Shinichi took up a remote from his inner pocket and pressed the button, activating a program in the computer and causing the alarm to turn off while the bars rose up to the ceiling. He raised an eyebrow; he hadn't actually thought that it would work, but he had to try it out in order to be certain. He sent a glance over the display cases, making sure that he'd taken everything he wanted and then opened a window. He heard police sirens far away as he jumped out to the drainpipe and used it to climb to the roof, from where he easily got away by jumping to another building.

* * *

Spider had applauded him once they met at a rather large bar back in Germany, which Shinichi had snuck into through the fifth floor window. The teenager was wearing a disguise so that he looked like a young man, American, with blonde spiky hair and a small moustache.

"Do you have them with you?" the man asked as Shinichi looked around.  
"Yes, how about you?"  
"Well of course!" Spider grinned and ordered them both a drink, much to the thief's annoyance; his father had told him stories about people who'd died, been caught, or screwed over because they let their guard down and Shinichi couldn't afford to lose all that money, so he'd decided that he would never drink while at work. Spider, however, didn't seem to mind being the only one drinking as long as Shinichi had a drink in front of himself.

"Do you know where the cameras are in here?" Spider whispered in his ear and Shinichi nodded; he wasn't good because he never got caught in the act, he was good so that he never got caught, "good, then follow me."

Spider led them to a rounded couch with a table and seated himself in it, patting the couch beside him, and Shinichi wanted to scowl at him, but only seated himself with a small smile.  
"As you probably know; we're now hidden from the cameras," the man bent down and pulled forward a black backpack from the underneath the couch and placed it beside his feet, "where are they? Did you eat them?" Spider grinned amused at his joke and the thief wondered how much the magician had been drinking before he showed up. Shinichi sent a quick glance around himself before he moved a hand underneath his shirt behind his back, opening the first lock by his waist and then the second by his scapulas, the one holding the straps over his shoulders. He pulled out a narrow bag that had been strapped to his torso, which contained every diamond he'd stolen. He handed it over underneath the table and Spider examined its contents with a grin.

"And now, my payment," he demanded and Spider pushed the bag to him.  
"It's large numbers," he stated and Shinichi opened it, experienced in counting them and checking for anything that didn't belong. He nodded and was about to get up and vanish into the crowd when Spider grabbed into his arm.

"Come on, have a drink with me!" he grinned and Shinichi narrowed his eyes in suspicion.  
"I don't drink while working," the thief answered annoyed, but Spider ignored him as he called over a waitress to get a lot of alcohol to the table.

In the end, Shinichi just sat there without drinking and listened to an intoxicated Spider, rambling about everything between heaven and earth. The magician explained magic tricks with mirrors and vanishing acts, which Shinichi found fascinating and filed away for later examination and testing, but according to the man he'd killed five people in total, but it sounded exaggerated, like when a hunter or a fisher brags about the size of the bear or fish, but before Spider passed out and was taken care of by his guards he said something interesting about a magician he'd killed and then impersonated. Apparently the man had been smiling at him until death, and before he bled out Spider asked; "How can you smile at a time like this?"  
"I have a good poker face, that's all, and every great magician should have one," the man he killed had told him, according to Spider, and Shinichi thought about it. A good poker face; that was what he'd had when he got betrayed by The Man, and convinced everyone that he was Marcel and not Night Baron. Poker face was a great thing to call it too, so even if all of his masks were torn off he could still pretend that he wore a fourth mask, a latex mask with his own face, and when the police came to question him he could have fixed an alibi.

* * *

A/N: If anyone has read 'Magic Kaito' they knows that Spider works for the same person as Snake, and that Snake never actually said that it was he specifically who had killed Toichi. Snake said; ''Eight years ago you came into our way, so we had to get rid of you. I never thought that you were still alive.''

I'm thinking that Shinichi's moustache looks like Toichi's, but blonde, because Toichi is awesome.

* * *

**Answer to Guest review; guest0327  
**I mention from time to time how old he is. He was 14+ when he was locked up and then he stayed there for six months, so now he's 15. I decided that he would be 14 when he solved his first murder, since that was what he was in DC when he solved his first one.

**Answer to Guest review; Guest  
**Yes, Shinichi will meet the other detectives and the BO, but on a bit different terms than what he met them on in DC.

**Answer to Guest review; reader74  
**Thank you, I'm glad you like it! And I'll try to update, but I have to see how it is to study at college, since it's a completely new way of studying for me, so I don't know how much I'll be writing. What I fear is that it might begin to take months between updates, and that's not funny, so I'll hopefully be able to write.

**Answer to Guest review; ayame67  
**I'm glad you like it! :D


	9. Night Baron Vs Saguru Hakuba

A/N: A month? _A month? A freaking month?_...  
My God, I'm an asshole...

Anyway, Douchebag Author hereby provides you with a looonger chapter as an excuse ^^

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 15  
Uploaded: 2012-09-23  
Chapter rating: K+  
Words: 3,700

* * *

**Chap. 9  
Night Baron Vs. Saguru Hakuba**

The thief had heard that a detective called Delon was looking for him, an obnoxious and loud detective, arrogant beyond reason and irritated the thief in a completely new way by actually managing to predict one of his heist locations in Valladolid, Spain, just after he'd struck Lisbon in Portugal, which made Night Baron pay the detective a visit the night before and drug him in his sleep. Shinichi made sure that Delon stayed asleep the entire day and evening, while he disguised as him and went inside by simply walking past everyone. He'd taken a deep breath and then released the laughing gas from the air vents. Before anyone had realised what had happened he'd taken the five jewels, torn of his disguise, placed the mask over his face and jumped out through the window, crushing its glass in the process, just as the metal bars fell to the floor, trapping the police. A small crowd of onlookers had gathered and watched as he fell to what would've been his death if he hadn't had the grappling hook, which enabled him to swing himself into an alley and vanish like a ghost, according to the newspaper.

However no one knew that Shinichi had limped for over a week from the crash into the ground, which had been from too high for him, and he realised a bit startled that he enjoyed that heist a lot more than the others and in a completely new way, while the only difference was that he'd been a lot closer to capture than normally. His usual heists were just him showing off that he'd planned good enough to simply walk inside and take whatever he wanted, while the new one had been planned as he went. He'd received a scolding from his parents and it took a few days before they forgave him for scaring them with the jump. He'd also talked with Spider about magic and vanishing acts, while the magician had loved the fact that he was able to get away even though there were officers everywhere. Delon, to Shinichi's delight, had been furiously yelling at him on the news.

* * *

Satoru had decided to buy a luxury yacht, since he managed to score big, while Avaron had struck a dry period for once. Living on a yacht was like living at a hotel without the service, which was an interesting experience to Shinichi, but he never the less enjoyed the fact that his father and he made home cooked dinners while his mother tried to find some way to get a plane or a helicopter, just for fun and to one-up her husband. After a month of complete boredom, plane- and helicopter lessons, an occasional murder and messing with the gasmask he'd stolen from the military, he was well enough to begin planning another break in, but halfway through the planning he got bored and started to consider telling the police where he'd hit. He knew that his parents wouldn't like it at all, so once he travelled to England and walked along his favourite street in England; namely the street where, in a perfect world, Sherlock Holmes would've lived. He began planning more methodically while he walked and ran through the city. Shinichi might not write things down, but that didn't stop him from memorizing the streets and great escape routes where no one without the right training could go.

Once he'd done a thorough investigation into whoever might show up on the heist and found a way to get inside even though all the security was up he sent out his first heist note, telling everyone when, where and what he would steal. Shinichi wrote the note in a graciously polite and noble way and signed it with a neat Night Baron-signature. He was there at the police station as the Brit Arthur Holmes when the chief opened the unmarked letter on his desk and roared in anger. Everyone was quickly gathered in one of the conference rooms and debriefed on what was going on, announcing that Night Baron would strike at midnight the day after, unless the note was fake, but since no one knew how it got there he assumed that it was the thief.

"We have Arthur Holmes here to help us, and if you don't know who he is; he's the brilliant detective who solved the recent triple homicide, and a few other cases. We also have Saguru Hakuba, who got back early from his vacation." Shinichi raised an eyebrow as he looked around, seeing a young man, a teenager around his own age stand up and head over to the board.

"Night Baron began stealing three years, two months, five days, one hour, thirty-six seconds and fifty-seven milliseconds ago," the blonde began as he placed himself beside the chief and Shinichi deadpanned at the long, and unnecessary time-statement, realising that the detective would show up on his heist, "up until now he has never sent out a heist note, assuming that this is actually from him, but it fits his personality, and would be the next step to becoming more like the Night Baron in 'The Night Baron'-series by Yuusaku Kudou. The next question is if he's going to continue to gather the more violent parts of the persona that he so fancies, but let's ignore that for a moment." Hakuba cleared his throat and continued.

"Something changed after his middleman, Marcel Hertzog, got caught and then vanished without a trace, since Night Baron altered his behaviour from stealing anything to going after diamonds. My deduction is that he's actually working for someone and took over after the diamond thief Aldric Wolf retired, since Marcel Hertzog was seen leaving together with him. The German teenager hasn't been seen stealing since, and has large sums of money that he didn't have before, but they were unfortunately impossible to trace." Shinichi wanted to do nothing but gape at the blonde Brit that was standing in front of everyone and ratted on like he'd seen everything firsthand. "Night Baron can both disguise and alter his voice as showed by his performance the last heist; however, I don't know how much. Night Baron is not a woman, but he is of somewhat average height, most likely a little bit shorter, so around 170 centimetres. He's around his twenties," a quiet storm of whispers broke the silence and the blonde glared at the officers while Shinichi suppressed a smirk; the blonde had made one miss, "yes, he's around his twenties. The one seen on the tape of his first appearance is probably a family member that taught him from when he was little. As you all should know; an international arrest warrant of Night Baron has been issued, which means that _they_ will be here."

Some of the police officers looked around in dislike and asked their partners if they knew if they would be forced to surrender the case in a hushed voice, this did not avoid the blonde's detection.  
"The International Criminal Police Organization; ICPO's agents are already heading for England and will arrive in two hours, sixteen minutes, two seconds and five milliseconds. Jack Connery will be leading on this," the detective stated and Shinichi swallowed; he hadn't even known of the arrest warrant from the Interpol. He hadn't gotten in over his head, had he? What if he was caught?  
No, he was Night Baron; he could handle anything.

"I think that when Delon figured out Night Baron's location he must've gotten a taste of the challenge, so he decided to repeat it, but going by the long absence he's had I'd say that he was either injured last time he stole or simply been planning for this, so I suggest that you do as Interpol wants and then leave me alone to deal with him."

Shinichi felt the tension in the room as Hakuba walked back to his seat with a superior smirk adorning his lips, but what was most surprising to the thief was the fact that everyone bent their heads in shame, or agreement. He'd heard the name Hakuba a few times during his investigations, but how good was he? That was something he had to find out more about, since he'd ignored him given that he was supposed to be in Japan visiting his father. And who was Jack Connery?

As it showed, Hakuba was borderline OCD about the time and neatness of himself. He was a good detective; the thief would go so far as to say that he was almost as good as himself. Shinichi also got a surprise when the blonde showed up dressed as Sherlock Holmes the very next day, and apparently he'd only been dressed normally because he came directly from the airport. The older officers assured him that he'd have to get used to seeing the Brit dressed like that on weekends, while he wore a suit on school days. People who'd never heard of him ridiculed him for dressing in the deerstalker hat while the ones who did know of him had the outmost respect for the confident teenager, who also owned a female hawk called Watson, which bothered Shinichi more than he wanted to admit.

* * *

Shinichi had fun the entire day, messing with the Interpol agents' traps, planning and setting up ways to catch Night Baron as Arthur, while he at the same time made sure to keep two eyes out; one for the police officers, who didn't seem to be able to come up with any good plans and one for the detective in full Sherlock Holmes gear, which actually might prove a challenge, but Shinichi had duct tape in case he got too bothersome.

The blonde detective was thrown out by the Interpol for being too young, despite his reputation, and the thief got to watch Hakuba argue with Jack over that. Shinichi had been smirking at Hakuba, who only glared at him through the window, but that was only until Shinichi was picked up in the collar by a huge man whose name should be Mr. Muscles and ended up outside with the blonde, who realised that it was his turn to gloat.  
"Not a word, Hakuba. Not a freaking word," Shinichi muttered annoyed with a British accent and left after an angry shout, "_you won't be able to catch Night Baron, not without me!_"

The thief had walked away, almost stomping childishly, while Hakuba had stayed, glaring at the locked door, wondering how he would get inside without being arrested for trespassing and obstruction of a police investigation.

* * *

Night Baron, in disguise as the police chief, watched how the police continued their setup from the end of a large crane on top of the building next to the museum; it didn't matter to him if he was inside the building or not, he had plans for both so he wasn't worried, however he'd caught a glance of a blonde teenage detective hiding from the ICPO agents behind a pillar, which amused him to no end. When Shinichi decided that it was time he took a hold of the rope that he'd tied at the end and backed until it was stretched so that he held in the two last metres. He stared down on the streets below and shuddered; if he lost his grip he'd be crushed. He took a step to the side and let out a breath.

"Come on, you've done this hundreds of times," he reprimanded himself quietly, remembering the pain he'd felt the last heist, while the tiny logical voice in his head immediately replied, full of malice; 'hundreds of times where you would end up in water if you fell. Mess this up and you'll go 'splat'!' Shinichi grinned as the adrenalin soared through his body and he took a small jump to the right and fell with the rope as the only assurance of life.

The thief landed and tied the end of the rope to the railing before he made his way downstairs through the window at the top floor, knowing that the chief was in a private meeting with Jack Connery, but that didn't stop him from being vary of every shadow since he didn't have time to be found. After Shinichi got down a few floors he walked past two Interpol agents with a polite greeting and then proceeded into a large hall with small fossils and uninteresting rocks. Shinichi, along with Hakuba had been one of the few people who had wished for the jewels to be transferred to a different location, however Jack had refused their request with the fact that they got easier to steal, which was exactly why the thief wanted them moved, while Hakuba argued that Night Baron only could be at one place at the time.

The teenager looked out over the room, taking in every change the officers had made and smiled as the anticipation over the night was making his heart beat hard. Never had he been that excited, except after he'd figured out his first murder and been showered in praise when he named the murderer and got him to confess. A shadow in the corner of his eyes made him alert, and he chuckled quietly while he watched the blonde teenage detective sneak into the restroom behind two agents.

Shinichi nonchalantly made his way inside the restroom, seeing one closed stall, with no feet on the ground, so he knew that the detective was hiding there. He locked the stall-door next to the one where Hakuba was, and then silently unlocked it in case he had to run. The thief got up on the seat without a single noise and peaked over to the next stall, seeing Hakuba sitting on top of the toilet with his eyes closed, concentrating on keeping his breathing inaudible. Shinichi grinned and pulled up a small syringe. He pulled off the protective tip and placed Night Baron's mask over his face. After a quick jump he hung over the wall and jabbed the detective, who jolted his head towards his direction when he heard the noise. Shinichi smirked as he saw the detective's eyes grow dulled and watched him jump towards the door, only to fail to open it and sink down to the floor with his shoulder against the wall.

"Don't worry," Shinichi murmured in Night Baron's calming voice while the detective's head slowly fell down to his chest as he fought the unconsciousness, "I checked your medical records to make sure that you could handle this."  
"Damn i-," Hakuba mumbled and ended in a hiss before he began breathing calmly. Shinichi smirked and easily crawled over to the blonde's side.

"Now Mr. Timekeeper, I hope that you'll be ashamed for calling me 'a pathetic little thief' earlier today," the thief smirked and pulled out the duct tape after placing Hakuba on the toilet seat. He hesitated for a moment, feeling that he might be going a bit too far since he was dealing with a fellow detective, and not just any detective; Hakuba could rival himself, and Shinichi would much rather challenge him intellectually than duct tape him to the toilet, but the thief didn't have much choice. Shinichi had realised that he had to drop Night Baron's calm act and turn to his more violent parts, which was a thought that he didn't particularly like, since the police might have gas masks to avoid his now refined gas. Shinichi had, after a day of research, made one sleeping gas and one gas that made people laugh uncontrollably, which was just as efficient.

Shinichi pulled off the white mask that he'd used to make sure that Hakuba knew who had attacked him and smiled at the sleeping silver-mummy as he quickly made his way over to the next stall, where he pulled off his disguise and stuffed it inside his pocket. He glued on the blonde moustache, fastened his blonde wig, put on a pair of glasses, glued on the mask that he used when he exchanged jewels and pulled a police cap over his hair before he headed out of the restroom, making sure that the only fragment of his face that got caught on the camera was the lower part.

The thief made sure that all the traps that he'd set up for himself as Arthur were still in place, making several additions to make both his and Hakuba's easier to trap officers in and then made his way to the surveillance room.  
"Any suspicious activity?" he asked in a slightly darker voice when he entered and the officers only sent him a glance, deciding that he must be from another district since they were cooperating with the nearest regions.  
"No, nothing yet," the officer Shinichi knew as Daniel replied.

"That's strange," the thief mumbled and he pushed a button on his phone while all five officers looked at him in surprise and he continued like he was stating something obvious while the cameras made a short cut and began looping, "it's twenty minutes past eleven, and the entire floor is locked down so that no one can enter it without being seen on the cameras, the windows have bars covering them, the stairways have been sealed off and the elevators don't go to that floor anymore, not to mention that the rest of the building is full of police officers! He has to realise that he can't get the jewels without being caught, so maybe he won't show…" Shinichi trailed off with a small frown, trusting the upper part of his mask to hide his identity.

"Yea, that might be it," Daniel continued with a confident smile, "but he will show. He's too proud not to. Hakuba was certain of it."  
"Hakuba?" Shinichi questioned surprised, "as in Saguru Hakuba, the detective?"  
"Yes, him exactly,"  
"You work with him?"  
"Yes, he's a pain in the ass but great at what he does," Daniel chuckled, "the arrogant prick will give you a headache."

"Yea, I've heard of him," the thief smiled and thought back on the restrained blonde, "and if he says that Night Baron will show, then Night Baron will." Shinichi grinned and his phone rang, seeing his father's number on the display and sent a busy-signal; both of his parents had been calling nonstop ever since the heist note had made it to the internet and he was too busy to speak with them. He felt a bit bad about worrying them by not answering and expected a severe punishment later, but for now he needed to concentrate on his task. "Sorry, I have to go. The chief is calling me."  
"See ya' later," Daniel's voice carried out before he closed the door behind himself.

Shinichi made his way to an elevator. He nodded to the officers that he passed and then pushed the button down before he quickly went up on its roof and took a hard grip into the thick metal cable, quickly travelling to the right floor where he stopped and heard the ding the elevator-doors made as they opened four floors below. He calculated the jump he would have to make to the air vent and any possible way he could fall or succeed before he felt the line begin to move, making him jump on reflex. Using all the strength he had he managed to pull himself into the pathway and sighed out of relief; maybe he had taken water over his head by performing the heist? Or maybe he was just lucky? Or maybe the police were absurdly ignorant when it came to thieves?

The teenager crawled until he reached a large black bag, hastily tucked away in a crossing route and then opened it, changing to his Night Baron clothing and then made his way to the heist room with a long, but steady metal pole and a rope. He removed the grid and placed the pole over it, making sure that it wouldn't fall down before he threw one end of the rope to the floor and stepped into the loop at the end and then descended by holding into the other half of the rope.

Shinichi broke into the display cases without a second to spare and stole all his targeted jewels and stopped to admire some of his objects; a beautiful ruby clad gold necklace, rare diamond rings which he was fascinated by, for their hideousness, and a large handmade green emerald necklace in silver that would cover the wearer's upper part of the chest, back and a bit of the shoulders. He placed crowns in his bag and ended up standing in front of the old gold throne with ten minutes to spare. He grabbed a golden sceptre and seated himself on the shockingly comfy throne, imagining Hakuba bowing before him while the rest of the police force stood as guards.

"Well then," the thief murmured with a pleased smile, "who's the best?"  
'You are, my lord,' the imaginary Hakuba stated and stood up. Shinichi shook his head amused at his own daydreaming and picked up his bag before he surveyed the room and then ascended by pulling himself up, feeling how the weight from his stolen goods wanted to drag him back down to the floor.

He made it up to the roof and with a sigh watched five officers patrol it from the air vent. The thief dialled a number and then waited for Big Ben to strike midnight. When he heard the bell strike he pushed the button and made a call, setting off every alarm and making all the screens in the surveillance room to go black and show only his mask, blinking in white. The officers on the roof ran into the stairwell while gas erupted from every corner on the locked down floor, making the police who first entered fall asleep. He removed the top of the vent and glanced around just as a light from a helicopter shone on him and he swore annoyed.

Shinichi ran to the railing and immediately shot the grappling hook, feeling it attach to the crane and then jumped without hesitation. He felt the helicopter follow him somewhat good with its light as he swung through the air and saw flashlights on the construction site, telling him that the real game was starting.

* * *

A/N: Jack Connery and Delon are from Magic Kaito, and Delon's an annoying prick and I hate him. XD  
I wanted Night Baron to go for the Crown Jewels of England, but it made me feel sacrilegious when I wrote it.

**Answer to Guest review; guest0327  
**Yes, Hakuba will show. I could put his age in every chapter ;)  
Sorry that it took such a long time ^^'

**Answer to Guest review;** **siren**  
Shinichi has forgotten his old family, or rather suppressed the memories so that he won't feel any pain, which is a very common reaction, and his brain has replaced the memories of his old parents with his new ones.

Ooh, that's a good idea! But I was thinking that he could make the gadgets himself, since that's mostly what KID does (sure Jii helps him a lot, like with the car and glider).


	10. Nightmare on Baker Street

A/N: I did it again! I drank an entire batch of coffee in less than thirty minutes! I'll be crawling all over the walls soon! OAO

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 15  
Uploaded: 2012-10-23  
Chapter rating: T  
Words: 3,500

* * *

**Chap.10  
Nightmare on Baker Street**

He expanded the line on the grappling hook so that he came close to the ground and then pushed the button to release it from the crane, landing easily on the street while watching the flashlights on the higher floors move away from the edges. He ran with the helicopter behind him, reporting which direction he went as he fled thought alleyways and over rooftops.

After an hour of running he'd barely lost the helicopter and the police, and he was hiding in an apartment complex, resting. A phone rang and made him tense. Annoyed he listened to it ring and realised that it would draw attention to the area in case any officers came inside. He made his way out of the storage and hastily found the phone in the stone stairs. He picked it up and sent a busy signal before he made his way back into his hideout, but before he had time to turn the phone off it rang again and he frowned at the caller's ID.

'Night Baron,' it said and he waited for a moment before he picked it up, responding in a cheerfully light voice.  
"Hi, I just found this phone, are you a friend of the owner?" the thief asked and a man's voice chuckled in the other end.  
"Yes, the phone is mine, Night Baron," the man stated, "you can drop the act; I saw you pick it up and then hide inside that storage."  
"What? Night Baron? As in the thief?" Shinichi asked in the same light voice, realising that he sounded dense, but the person in the other end only sighed and began reciting every step he'd taken from the moment he was discovered on the roof to his current hiding-place.  
"Okay," the thief said in Night Baron's normal voice, "you haven't revealed my location to the police, so I can only assume that you want something."  
"I have planned your escape route from that place," the man in the phone smirked.  
"Why?"  
"Just a favour from one thief to another..." he trailed off.  
"I don't work for people I don't know," Shinichi said with firmness, even though he worked for Spider, but that would only be until he caught 'Mr. Moriarty'.  
"I know," the man sighed, "you were impossible to track down. Everyone knows of you, yet, no one knows you and barely anyone have ever seen you, but when I heard of your heist I hurried over here and voila! I found you, and followed you; I'm good at that. So how about it? Do you want my perfect escape route or do you want to sit there while I call the cops?" Shinichi paled and fidgeted while the man hummed contently, "ooh, it looks like they are going to go inside the building now!"

The thief heard the doors open and heard the officers' voices.  
"Well?" the man asked with a smile.  
"Okay, but only if you tell me what you gain from it," Shinichi demanded in a hushed voice and the man chuckled.  
"This time it's pro-bono, but now we'll become partners and the next time you'll give me half of the loot."  
"You have a deal," Shinichi muttered, thinking that Night Baron could go underground for a while.  
"Good," the man said and Shinichi suddenly heard how the radios of the policemen blared_; "Night Baron has been sighted! He doubled back to the museum!"  
_"Impressive," the thief commented after the officers' running steps disappeared.  
"It's my job," the other answered with a smile, "now you do as I say."

* * *

Shinichi followed the man's directions and jumped from one roof to the next, until he made it into a dark alley, hiding from a couple of police cars.  
"Go into the sewer," the man said in the phone and Shinichi opened the heavy top in an adjacent alley, pulling it to the side and then went down, closing it behind him, "there's a flashlight to your right." Instead of obeying Shinichi took out a small led light from his pocket, looking around before he indeed found a flashlight to his right. He examined it before he took it, carefully investigating it closer to make sure that it wasn't a bomb of some kind.

"Sorry," Shinichi said after a while in the phone, "I barely found it in the dark."  
"Don't worry, I have all the time in the world," the man chuckled and allowed Shinichi to find out that he wasn't watching him at the moment, or didn't care about Night Baron's lie.

The thief ran on the footpath through the sewers and then got to where the man wanted him to go up.  
"Get to the roof of the building and wait there and you'll be able to walk away without a single cop suspecting you or wanting to check your bag."  
Shinichi didn't respond and only climbed the outside of the fire escape, quickly getting up to the roof five floors up.

"I'm there now," he said in a smooth voice and looked around the buildings, realising that he was currently on Baker Street and smiled at that.  
"Yes, I can see you," the man stated and Shinichi closed his eyes, trying to sense from where the feeling of being watched came from, "I'm on the building on the other side of the street."  
"Oh, so I get to meet my Knight in Shining Armour?" he asked as he turned around, pulling out the night vision binoculars and received an amused snort.  
"Doesn't that make you the damsel in distress?" the man stated in an laughing tone, making Shinichi hum as he found a man covering half of his face with a golden jester mask, having black, spiky beard, shoulder length, black hair and a dark jacket looking a lot like the one Shinichi was wearing, but much shorter. Shinichi's went down to his ankles and he had an added collar while the man's reached down to half of his tights, "the name's Nightmare."

"A nightmare?" Shinichi chucked, "for whom?"  
"The police of course, for I am the secret planner. As long as I plan a thief's escape route no one can catch him." Shinichi smirked and hummed, realising that if he could learn how to plan better escape routes and fool the police he'd be unstoppable. Shinichi had even begun training some of Spider's vanishing acts, but it was harder than he liked to admit and not to talk about how long the setup took him.  
"What say you?" Nightmare smirked confidently and Shinichi knew at that moment that if he didn't do as the planner wanted he'd end up in jail.  
"I seem to have gotten a partner," Shinichi said in a light voice, still carrying the characteristic undertone of danger.

"There's a radio in the corner of the roof; leave the phone and take that instead," the planner demanded and Shinichi reluctantly did as he was told, "where are you striking next?"  
"Birmingham," Shinichi replied in the radio, "in three weeks. I need to go home and exchange the jewels."  
"You have a buyer?" Nightmare asked and Shinichi could hear the interest in his voice.  
"Yes, I always have buyers, but they aren't disloyal enough to reveal themselves to just anyone that's asking around about me."  
"Ooh, is that so?" Nightmare turned around and disappeared from the roof, "I'll see you in three weeks, Mr. Baron. Keep the radio, and I'll contact you once you get to Birmingham."  
"Sweet dreams," Shinichi answered and then left with the roof, not feeling like staying there. Down in the alley he felt too exhausted to remove his outfit completely, so he only took off two of the masks, keeping the one in latex. He sighed and stared down on himself, deciding to remove the mantle and hat, and ended up in a black suit. He folded the clothes and stuffed them in his bag after placing the masks in a side compartment.

Shinichi ran through alleyways and walked calmly across roads, from time to time seeing a policeman, but the thief disappeared into the darkness before he'd been discovered. When he was halfway to the hotel he heard a muffled scream and a then a groan in pain.

"Hold her legs!" a man growled and Shinichi immediately pulled up his masks, placing them both over his face and made his way towards the noise in a quick sprint. Before he turned around the corner he lowered the bag, holding into the shoulder strap, and made the bag hang only a centimetre over the ground before he dropped it. Running on the balls of his feet he made very little sound as he neared the struggle. The crock of a walking stick stuck up from a dumpster and Shinichi absentmindedly grabbed it. The woman fought against the three men that immediately became two when Shinichi reached them, knocking out the first and then swung the cane towards the other two, making them jolt back and release the woman.

In the darkness they could barely distinguish their attacker from the shadows, but threw themselves at him anyway. Shinichi narrowly avoided them, but one of them grabbed the cane, and being a teenage boy versus a full-grown, muscular man he lost his grip, but instead of mourning the tool Shinichi took a step on the man's stomach and kicked him in the jaw with his heel as he spun around. When he landed on the ground he crouched down to look around, seeing the last man make a jump for him. Shinichi flew up from the ground and landed on top of the man that crashed headfirst into the ground. Shinichi examined the man's pulse, making sure that he hadn't broken his neck before he looked around, not really believing that his father's hard lessons had made him win within a minute; it was baffling, especially since he'd assumed that everyone was as good as his father. A strained breathing and sobbing made him suddenly aware that he actually wasn't alone.

"Are you alright, young miss?" he asked in the dark and smooth voice, dropping the dangerous undertone and studied the trembling woman on the ground that was pressing herself up against the wall, while looking straight ahead in fear, obviously failing in discerning him from the shadows, "I won't hurt you." Shinichi took a step towards her, but realised that she was still panicking and crouched down, waiting for her to calm down.

"Do you live far from here?" he asked after a while, and she shook her head.  
"No," she sniffled, still not finding him, "just a couple of blocks." Shinichi stood up and went to get his bag, not wanting to leave it alone for too long.  
"Please don't leave me!" she called out and looked around in the darkness, not seeing the stranger that had saved her.  
"Okay," he answered as he opened the bag and threw the mantle over himself, hoping that she'll be calmer if she recognized him, "I just dropped my bag around here. I've been running around the entire city tonight." Shinichi pulled up the duct tape with a satisfied smirk and then restrained the men, throwing them in a dumpster and then went to the woman.

"Night Baron," she gasped when he got close enough for her to see who it was, "no way."  
"I could walk you home," Shinichi offered and helped her up from the ground, "but unfortunately I only move through the dark so if you fear it I can watch over you from afar." She grabbed into his suit, nestling her way into underneath the mantle and held him hard. Shinichi wrapped his arms around her and allowed her to calm down even more. Despite being tired from the long day Shinichi lifted her into his arms and allowed her to place her arms around his neck and shoulders.

"Where do you live?" he asked and listened to her mumbled answer. He smiled and started walking, knowing exactly where it was, and felt how she hid her face in his large collar. Shinichi kept asking her questions and getting answers, until they stood in the backyard of a small house. Shinichi broke them in by picking the lock and deactivated the alarm without the code. Apparently Nicole was twenty-eight, the youngest of five, and had moved back in with her parents until they sold the house, due to the fact that they were getting too old to care for it.

* * *

Shinichi, who was standing in the kitchen waiting for the tea to brew, sent a glance to the woman that was sitting curled up in a small armchair staring at him. He removed the outer mask and placed it in his pocket while he smiled at her, seeing her blink.  
"I was thinking that I should call the police…" she trailed off and threw her arms around her legs, holding them close to her chest, "but I thought that you might want to leave first."  
"Thank you," Shinichi murmured as he walked into the living room and handed her the tea, "I've heard that you English-people drink a lot of tea, so I made you some."  
"Thank you," she giggled a bit, "you're a nice person, aren't you?"  
"I like to think that," Shinichi smiled and turned around to leave, "call, I'll be leaving now."  
"No wait," she called out and placed the cup on a small table before he'd even taken a few steps and he turned around in confusion, seeing her jump off the armchair.  
"Thank you," Nicole whispered as she embraced him and he smiled, but before he knew it she'd pulled him into a kiss and he froze, not knowing what to do. Shinichi pulled away, immediately placing the mask over his face to hide the blush and Nicole slapped her hands over her mouth, realising that she might have gone too far.  
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" she quickly exclaimed and Shinichi shrugged.  
"No worries, I'm just not used to women throwing themselves at me," he confessed, "now call the police. The perpetrators should still be in the alley, in a dumpster. Farewell Nicole." He left through the back door while the woman dialled.

* * *

"Damn," Shinichi mumbled to himself as he lay on his bed and held a hand against his lips, feeling his cheeks heat. He'd gotten to his hotel room without running into any more trouble, but he still couldn't believe that he'd been kissed by a woman that was so much older than himself, not that she knew that; she probably thought that he was in his mid-twenties or mid-thirties considering what kind of voice Night Baron had. The teenager chuckled a little bit; even if the fame he got from being a thief was great it couldn't compare to when he solved a case and would tear that smugness away from the murderer, and today had been good too, especially after he'd heard on the police radio that the men had been caught.

The phone vibrated in his pocket and he fished it up, sighing as he saw the display say 'dad' and prepared himself for a harsh scolding before he answered.  
"Hi, dad. Sorry that I didn't answer before. I was kind of busy," Shinichi said in a single breath.  
"Ah! I can't believe you did that!" Satoru called out and Shinichi raised an eyebrow; his father didn't sound mad at all, and he listened how the older thief started to babble, seemingly not knowing if he should be mad or just praise his son, "I'm so happy that you're safe! That what an amazing act! Avaron even recorded it! I thought she was going to bite off her fingers as we watched, but don't think that you're out of trouble young man! You're going to get punished for pulling something like that off! It was fantastic! The clock struck twelve, you were out and then gone! But I saw it and-, wow, it was great! We think that we're going to ground you for a year! You could have told us about what you were planning!"

Shinichi yawned quietly as he kept listening to his father's ranting for about five minutes, until the man stopped repeating words.  
"You're not asleep, are you?" a suspicious voice asked in the phone.  
"No, I'm awake, and my ears are hurting."  
"Ha! Serves you right for nearly giving us a heart attack, you wild manic!"  
"Well, that tells a little something about the people who raised me, doesn't it?"  
"No-no, it must be the mail-man's genes," his father joked.  
"Yes, that's right," Shinichi commented in irony, "and let me tell you; he was one hell of a mail-man in College. I think his name was Simon."  
"Touché,"  
"But I got to thank you for your hard fighting lessons. I really hated every second of them, but now I'm happy that you were more stubborn than I was and forced me to learn."  
"Oh? Did you fight with the police?" Satoru asked in curiosity, "I did teach you that so that you'd be able to defend yourself if you one day got in trouble, which you will, I've seen your luck; it sucks."  
"Thank you, dad; it's good to know that you believe in me," Shinichi replied with a small chuckle and then grew serious, "but what happened was that I protected a woman from three men."

"That's good," Satoru stated in a more sincere voice, "but something else is bothering you."  
"Yes," Shinichi sighed, "she kissed me, and I don't really understand why; isn't that something you'd only supposed to the one you love? That's what they said in school; you fall in love and then get married." Satoru blinked in the phone, unable to hear if his son was joking or simply dense when it came to love, romance and anything related to that; he'd suspected it before, but now he got it confirmed. He would have to have _the talk_ with his unbelievably dense son, and that really soon if he was going to run around saving people.  
"I'll tell you when you get home!" Satoru snickered, imagining his son to become the perfect gentleman; once he was done with him he would know exactly how to court a woman.  
"I'll go through the Chunnel in a couple of hours, so I'll be home by tomorrow,"  
"Won't that be suspicious?"  
"Please, what do you take me for? I've been bragging about the trip I 'won' for the entire time I've been here. Pretty stupid of a thief to tell everyone where he's going, right?" Shinichi smirked and heard his father laugh, "but I have a more serious question; do you know anything about a man who calls himself 'Nightmare'?"  
"Yes," Satoru stated in a grave voice, "not many people know of him since he hasn't been around for that long, but he's a dangerous fellow; he either kills his partners or sends them to jail after he's grown bored with them. To my understanding Nightmare showed up a year ago, but that's only when I first heard of him so he might have been around for longer. He wears a golden jester mask, but that's about the only thing I know about him..." There was an underlying question in his voice and Shinichi heard it; 'have you met him?'

"It's true," the teenager stated and got up from the bed in order to take his things and leave, "he really wears that mask, and he calls himself 'The Planner'."  
"You have to get away from him. I don't like that Spider-guy you're working for, but he doesn't stab his associates in the back. I've checked up on Wolf and he's fine."  
"I realised that the moment I heard him describe the exact way I had gone. He even knew where I was hiding," Shinichi sighed, "he must have an information source within the police and seen me at the same time."  
"He might have kidnapped a child and held them hostage to get information," Satoru stated with a small frown as he began thinking about it and unknowingly made Shinichi pale. The teenager leaned with his back against the wall, wondering where the feelings of dread and horror came from, the same feelings that always surfaced whenever he heard the words 'child' and 'kidnapped' in the same sentence.

"Dad, I'm doing this again in three weeks, but I want your help in dealing with Nightmare; we're partners now. I don't want to end up in a situation where he gets the upper hand. I need someone who can see a trap long before he has time to even set it."  
"Yes, sire! Both your mother and I will be there to help! And we'll meet you in Paris; the perfect place for you to learn about women!" Satoru snickered as he hung up and then grew serious as he sent his wife a glance, "we won't lose him to Nightmare."

* * *

A/N: I actually used Google maps to find a good building on Baker Street XD  
What's the name of those round things that covers the sewer-system?

* * *

**Answer to guest review; Guest**  
I don't know... A few chapters?  
They were supposed to meet quite soon, but I expanded the timeline with this heist, and a few other things.


	11. A Spider's True Colours

A/N: I never knew just how **MANY** kinds of alcohol there are! Gah! What's Shinichi's Black Organization name going to be?

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 15  
Uploaded: 2012-11-12  
Chapter rating: T  
Words: 2,300

* * *

**Chap. 11  
A Spider's True Colours**

Shinichi sat by the table with a coffee in his hands and from time to time sent the Eiffel tower a glance as he waited for Spider, or Günther Von Goldberg, as he quickly found out after a quick search on the internet. The thief sent his watch a glance, seeing it reach 13.00 and looked around. Just as he was about to get up and leave he saw the familiar face of Spider, heading for him so he only sipped the coffee once more, amazed by the delicious taste.

"Sorry," the man muttered as he sat down and dropped his bag to the street while Shinichi raised an eyebrow at his lack of coolness, "I was held up by that infernal woman."  
"Infernal woman; that's the first time I've ever heard anyone described that way," the thief commented with a smirk.  
"If you knew her you'd understand," Spider muttered and bent forward as he continued in a lower voice, "she's Anokata's favourite, and can get away with so much shit that I just want to make an entire building go up in flames. Beware of her; she uses people like a little girl plays with dolls, and then rips their heads off so that no one else can use them." Spider smiled gleefully. "She got injured in New York recently, shot in the stomach, and now she's here. If it wasn't for the fact that Anokata likes her I'd kick her out on the street."  
"What's her name? So I know who to stay away from," Shinichi asked, seemingly a bit suspicious, but inside he was cheering; finally Spider was beginning to talk.

"Vermouth," the man muttered after he ordered himself a coffee, "but she isn't the only one. You see, we're divided into divisions. I'm one of the members that are dormant; I'm only called when needed, but I'm called by all divisions even though this is the one where I'm mostly used. Whisky is the head of our division and he reports directly to Anokata. Our goal is to obtain Pandora, a special jewel, and to erase any enemy who gets too close to us. Kaitou KID was one of those people, ten years ago, when he too began searching for Pandora." Spider sighed and became silent as the waitress brought his coffee and Shinichi made a mental note to check up on Kaitou KID.

"You're soon going to become a member and receive a code name," Shinichi panicked at his statement, but kept a composed exterior.  
"I won't kill anyone," he interjected in a smooth voice but his eyes held a sharpness that told the man that he didn't like it.

"I know," Spider smirked, "but you're still going to become one of us. Anokata himself decided that someone of your talents might come in handy. We could use you to break in and steal data and such things. However that would mean that you're no longer working for me or Whisky, then you'd be transferred to either Vermouth or Gin, neither is someone you'd want to hang around. Even Sherry might want to use you to steal other people's research. Or you might stay in this division and be called when needed to the others. Frankly, I can see you being used a lot."  
"Is there anyone else I should watch out for?"  
"As long as you're doing what you're told no one will harm you, but if you take one single step wrong no member will hesitate to kill you, not even I," Spider confessed and Shinichi nodded, seeing in the corner of his eye how Spider's bag was pushed to him.  
"I've already understood that, but what happens to the offer of 'retirement' if I become a member?"  
"It stays the same," Spider smirked and Shinichi could tell by the glint in his eyes that it was a blatant lie, so the retirement would be 'eternal sleep', "the moment we met you were a member, now we're just going to make it official."  
"Sweet," Shinichi let a smile show, but it was a cold smile that didn't reach his eyes, clearly conveying that he was losing his patience with how Spider was manipulating him.

"The FBI is out there too and they have some dangerous agents. If you ever hear the name Akai Shuichi, or codename Rye; run, or be caught and disposed of. Akai managed to infiltrate the organization and escape us. Not even Gin has been able to kill him yet and Vermouth insists that he's the organization's silver bullet, and calls him that."

"Why is a huge organization stealing jewels?"  
"I don't know. Why is a huge organization leading in computer science, game development, and chromosome- and stem cell research?" Shinichi blinked; why was the organization working in the shadows if they had that kind of business? Did it involve human experimentation?  
"That wasn't what I expected..." the thief confessed.  
"I know, no one ever does," Spider smirked.  
"What kind of code name am I getting? Cat?"  
"No, the names are alcoholic ones,"  
"Oh? I just assumed that there were different systems for the different divisions based on yours and Snakes,"  
"You'd think, but there's a wine that's made with dead snakes in it. Delicious, right?" the man snorted, "and Spider's Kiss is a drink."  
"Never heard of those two, when do I get my name?"  
"Probably the next time we meet,"  
"So in about a month," Shinichi nodded and the magician's phone went off and he picked it up as the thief averted his eyes, trying to look like he wasn't eavesdropping.

He managed to hear the words 'Vermouth', 'target' and 'deal with' while sipping his coffee and sending a red open bag a bit away from him with a pink wallet a glance. Shinichi eyed the woman with a mental eyebrow raised as his fingers began to itch; was she even aware that it was extremely easy to steal her wallet at that moment?

Spider grinned a bit as he hung up and leaned forward.  
"It seems like I have to leave," he stated and took the bag with the jewels as Shinichi waved to a waitress to get the check. The thief calmly watched how the man got up, even though he in his mind was yelling at the waitress to hurry up; he needed to see how Spider, a magician, dealt with murder, and he needed evidence to put him away.

Shinichi sent a glance to Spider's back before he paid for them both and then followed the murderer. The magician went back to the building where his stage props were and seemed to get ready for a show so Shinichi called his father.  
"Dad, I need you to come and get my bag, it seems like the spider has found a prey in its net," Shinichi stated the moment his father answered, "I'm on the top of the building next to its home."  
"I'll be there in a moment," Satoru answered quickly and gave his wife a kiss as he cut off the call. Avaron shook her head with a giggle and pushed him away, secretly afraid that he would never come back, but with their chosen fields of expertise both of them were always worried about the other. The couple had learnt to deal with the fear by showering the other in love, treats and happiness, but now their son had gone and begun doing things even more dangerous than the two of them put together and it scared Avaron in a completely new way.

The more experienced thief quickly made his way to the area where his son was and then went to the roof only to find a single bag in the corner. Satoru scowled in irritation and took it; he didn't want his son to do dangerous stunts alone. Shinichi was just a child even if he took on responsibilities like an adult. Satoru found an abandoned warehouse and hid the bag on a beam before he made his way to a high building to look for the teenager.

* * *

Shinichi followed Spider wherever he went after the man had taken the equipment he wanted, and then found himself on a building outside the American embassy observing a dark-clad magician with a weird kind of mask on, looking like a binocular but with three lenses, sometimes gleaming in red; one over each of his eyes and one in his forehead. Shinichi assumed that it had multiple uses and that the lenses could be turned so that he could use the one in his forehead.  
'You're one of the creepies things I've seen,' Shinichi snorted inside his head, remembering what the man had called him, and watched Spider inflate what seemed to be a large, black balloon, 'take a look in the mirror.'

The thief watched the balloon rise and pressed harder into the roof as Spider was raised into the night sky with it. The magician looked around, but then moved towards the embassy with the help of large, but silent, propellers. Unaware that he was watched Spider extended the lines so that he hung in front of his targets room, knowing that he'd arrived about ten minutes ago. He opened the window and then sat there waiting for the man to get out of the bathroom.  
"Greetings, mon ami," Spider grinned and the man gasped, but before he had time to call for help he was trapped in the illusion, unable to scream.

Red lights danced in front of Shinichi's eyes. The lights changed and he was standing in the living room of a house seeing his parents clothes covered in blood, but no bodies. Fear pulsed through his veins and he twitched when he heard steps, but it wasn't really human steps. In the dim lighting he could barely see into the corridor through the open arch and carefully crouched down against the couch, waiting for what would enter. Shinichi's eyes widened in fear as he discerned what could only be described as a huge spider. The monster made a run for him, and he felt the need to run, but just as he was about to follow his instincts he remembered where he really was; in the corner of a rooftop, and if he ran he would eventually fall off. The thief carefully crouched down again and pulled the mantle over himself. He could feel every single shake that the gigantic spider caused as it threw the furniture over with its large body while coming towards him, but he knew where he was and he couldn't move.

Shinichi had been to the performance Günter held in Paris so he knew of the illusionary magic, and knew that the fear and terror that coursed through his veins wasn't his own; it was all part of the trick. Shinichi gritted his teeth and felt how tears ran from his eyes as he carefully took deep breaths, wanting the pain and terror to go away, but it never did. He pinched himself, bit his hand and wrist, scratched the skin on his arms, hit his leg, but nothing broke the illusion, so in the end he lay there waiting, wondering if time might be a factor as he glanced around, still trapped.

* * *

Satoru was worried as his wife flew the helicopter over the city; he didn't dare to call his son in case he was hiding from someone. The man in police attire moved the searchlight over the roofs in the hope that his son was there somewhere. He knew that it was a futile attempt to search the roofs on a city as large as Paris, but he couldn't just sit down and wait so he hoped for luck and kept searching. Shinichi had been gone since his call and that was twelve hours ago. He hadn't heard a sound from him and the couple listened on the police radio in case Night Baron was caught or if the body of one of Shinichi's identities was found. They searched the entire night, but then caught a whiff of something that didn't add up. An American politician had been targeted by an assassin and fled to Paris, where he during the night committed suicide by throwing himself out the window with a snare around his neck and it wasn't until the early morning that anyone even saw the body hanging there.

Flying over the scene Avaron answered to the police calls over the radio with a fake code for their helicopter and when they left after making sure that Shinichi wasn't there Avaron took them to a new altitude as she stared out over the city, seeing the nearest tall building and flew there. She almost missed the black ball curled into a corner by an air vent and small stone walls, but she pointed to it, hoping that it was her son, injured and not dead. Satoru followed her gaze and then tied a rope to one of the helicopter's landing skids. He slid down along it and let it go as he reached the roof. The black bundle shifted slightly in the hard gusts from the rotors and he could see the customary blue shimmer from Night Baron's clothes in the early morning sun.

A wave of dread came over him when his son didn't move and only lay there lifeless as he ran up to him.  
"Shinichi!" he called out and took away the mantle and mask, seeing his son shiver from the fever he'd developed during the night, but otherwise unharmed. Satoru shook him, but Shinichi didn't open his eyes. Avaron watched her husband lift their son into his arms and then waved to her with a smile, letting her knew that their son was alive. She smiled and steered the helicopter so that it only hovered a few metres over the roof; she didn't dare to descend any lower in fear that a strong gust would make her crash, but the rope that Satoru had slid down along was more than he needed to tie his son to himself and then climb up.

* * *

A/N: Vermouth was shot in the stomach during the Golden Apple case in DC when Ran saved her life (I imagine that it was the same kind of thing that happened in Twisted Path, but with Shinichi's sister and Ran instead).

In this story Kaitou KID began searching for Pandora ten years ago, but was murdered three years later, making him dead for seven years so Kaito starts stealing in a year, which will be in about four chapters, I think.

* * *

**Answer to guest review; Clare  
**Really? I didn't think that I was updating it that often since my main story is 'Of Fire And Water'! XD  
I'm really happy that you say that! And I've started to like this story more and more actually, even though there's no way that it's going to become as long as OFAW ;)  
Hahaha! That was how I started! I first had all the stories I liked in a Word document and then got an account to follow them instead and review!


	12. Dangerous Company

A/N: Hmm.. Wonder how long this one will become... Twenty chapters? Thirty? Am I insane for thinking that that seems to be a reasonable length for a story?

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 15  
Uploaded: 2012-11-27  
Chapter rating: T  
Words: 2,100

* * *

**Chap.12  
Dangerous Company**

Shinichi opened his eyes and saw his own room with his mother smiling down at him, dabbing his forehead with a wet cloth.  
"Mom," he said weakly and shivered from the cold, despite being wrapped in multiple layers of covers and blankets.  
"Oh, Shinichi," the woman smiled and gave him a loving hug, "we thought we lost you."  
"I'm sorry, mom," Shinichi mumbled through gritted teeth, "I somehow got caught in Spider's illusion. I don't know how; I wasn't even near him, even though I was using a binocular. I thought that he used some kind of gas to drug his audience, but I guess that it was just light."  
"It's okay," she whispered and pulled away to stroke his cheek, "you're alive. You don't have to explain anything until you get well."  
"I need to learn how to resist his illusion."  
"Hush, love, get well first,"  
"I need to get to Birmingham and examine the city,"  
"If worst comes to worst Sat-chan will talk with Nightmare and tell him that the heist will be pushed up a bit."

"Shinichi," his father showed up in the door and smiled relieved as he walked up to the bed and kneeled beside it, "you scared us real good." Shinichi was about to speak, but a finger was laid across his lips and his father hushed him gently. "We're a family, Shinichi, we look after each other; if we didn't we'd be long dead. You need to trust us as much as we trust you. When we work together we can make anything possible, but if that trust breaks we would never make it, so when you go running off like that, tell us where so that we can watch over you and protect you like you do to us." Shinichi raised his eyebrows, amazed that his father knew that he was observing them whenever they were scamming someone dangerous.

"You should focus on getting better, and I brought you something," the older thief grinned and pulled out a book, making Shinichi's eyes widen, "ooh, yes, it's the new book in the Night Baron series. It was two weeks delayed, and it hasn't actually been published yet; it comes out next week, but I left the company twice the amount of money and a note from you saying that you stole it. I thought it was funny." Satoru grinned as his son reached for it, but held it away from him. "If you want the book you have to promise that the only thing you'll do is getting better; no running, jumping, breaking in and no contacting either creep you're working for until you get my approval to do so." Shinichi nodded weakly and let his arms fall back to the bed; he didn't even have enough strength to hold them up.

* * *

It took Shinichi a few days to get better, or well enough for his father to let him out of the apartment, and annoyed he found himself retrieving the bag with money that Satoru had 'forgotten' all about. He still had moments of chills and weakness, but he couldn't handle being in bed any longer even though it had taken him two days to read the new book since he fell asleep in the middle of reading. Shinichi sighed as he rested in the corner of the building, hiding in the gap between the wall and an old, empty metal cupboard; the simple climb up and down to the beam had made him exhausted. He didn't like the place; it made him antsy to be there, and feeling weak didn't make it any better. Shinichi knew that he should stay in bed to read up on Spider's illusionary magic; he needed to learn how to break the hypnosis if he ever was to catch him. He didn't even know how hypnosis by lights worked, but he also had to assume that Spider could do it by a simple conversation.

Shivers ran through his body and just as he stood up to get out of the building he heard the loud screech from the door as it opened, followed by talking voices and the slam as the door closed.  
"This is the place, right?" a gruff voice came and Shinichi pressed further into the corner while another man answered.  
"Yes, but we're one hour early," a quiet and weak voice whispered and Shinichi quickly pulled out his identities, hiding both the one that Spider knew as Night Baron and the one he was with his parents, underneath the storage so that he only had Éric Dubois left, an orphan of fourteen years.  
"You don't want that woman checking out this place before us, who knows what she'd do-,"

"Only one hour," a cold female voice chuckled and Shinichi didn't dare to breathe as he couldn't locate the source, "I've been here longer." The thief closed his eyes, hoping that he'd been sitting in the corner long enough to not have been seen.  
"Do you have it?" the first man snarled and threw something heavy to the ground.  
"Yes, of course, and you have my payment?"  
"One hundred thousand. Now hand it over!" the man barked and Shinichi heard the clatter of something else, something smaller, so he peaked out from his hiding place, seeing a heavyset man pick up what appeared to be a small box and a skinny youth fidget as he looked towards the ceiling.  
"This is the last time we'll ever see one of your kind!" the man stated harshly as he examined its contents and Shinichi hid again when the woman laughed.  
"Yes, it really is the last time," she confirmed and Shinichi heard the sound on two shots, suppressed with a silencer and he closed his eyes, hoping that the woman, or whoever was shooting, hadn't seen him, "the last time for you to see anything."

The steps of high heels echoed through the now quiet warehouse and from what Shinichi could tell she was standing beside the bodies.  
"Come out, come out, whoever you are," the woman sang and but Shinichi didn't move, hoping that there was another person hiding somewhere, "or do you want me to shoot you where you stand, boy?"

Shinichi braced himself and walked out from his hiding place, seemingly calm and left the bag behind.  
"Bring the bag," the woman demanded. Shinichi nodded and turned around, making sure that he never glanced up to her face; it was unnecessary to give her another reason to shoot him.  
"And whatever you hid underneath; I've seen your every move," the woman's smooth voice commanded and Shinichi obeyed.  
"Come over here." The thief carefully walked over the floor, until he stood in front of a corpse, seeing that the bullet had gone into his head in between his eyes but hadn't exited, which meant that the woman has holding a small calibre handgun and was an excellent marksman.  
"Kneel," she said in a loving voice and Shinichi carefully fell to his knees.

"I haven't seen your face," he began and mentally frowned at the fact that he was using Night Baron's clam voice, "take my money and leave me alive. I won't speak a word of this."  
"Look at me," the woman demanded and waited for a while in silence, but the thief didn't look up, "look at me, or I'll shoot you."  
Reluctantly he shifted his gaze from the dead man in front of him to the woman's high heeled boots running up to her knees; black, leather. His eyes travelled over her skin-tight, black leather pants, and up to the black leather jacket, seeing golden strands of hair fall over a well-filled bosom, and then took in the confident smirk that adorned her beautiful face with sunglasses covering her eyes. In one hand she held a black motorcycle helmet and in the other the gun that would soon be his murder weapon. Shinichi's instincts told him to beg, to run or to do anything, but the cold eyes behind the sunglasses told him that she wouldn't care so he only concentrated on breathing calmly and the woman smirked amused.

"Give me your IDs," she demanded and Shinichi slowly reached into his pocket, taking out all three of them at a snail's pace and handed them over. The woman dropped the helmet to the floor and pulled up her phone.

"Marezzo," she smiled, "I need some of your computer magic... I'm in France. Check the ID of Éric Dubois." The woman waited for a while and Shinichi stared at her, "a good fake, you say, how about René Martin?" There was an even longer silence and Shinichi tried hard not to let his face show any fear; whoever Marezzo was, he was good, since Éric Dubois should've even kept the police busy for at least a year before they'd found out that it was fake.  
"So he's a detective... Is that so... What about Aaron Smith?" she asked and then stared at Shinichi in disbelief, "ooh, is that so? That's the most interesting thing I've heard today. Thank you, Marezzo, send all my love you your lovely wife and child." The woman hung up, stared at him and then shook her head.

"So, Cool Guy, who are you?" Shinichi blinked at the question and watched the woman crouch down, "you see, you have two IDs, which both passes through Marezzo, and that is pretty uncommon, and to my knowledge has never happened before."  
"Well, that's my ID-maker for you; she loves making them. She even invented a country once; I was a prince," Shinichi smirked at the memory of wearing a crown while at an embassy and having servants.  
"You never answered my question,"  
"Aaron Smith, is the real one," Shinichi lied, knowing that it was the most advanced ID his mother had ever made for him, and what was even more important; Aaron's parents were dead, killed in a car accident unlike the French detective René Martin's.

"So why do you even have René Martin? A _detective_ of all things," the woman wondered and Shinichi noticed that her attitude towards him had changed.  
"Because one day I'll become one," he asserted strongly, not believing that the smiling woman would let him live now that he'd seen her face, "no matter what kind of illegal things I do at the moment; they don't matter. What matters is the future." The woman raised an eyebrow and removed her glasses. Shinichi had the feeling that he recognised her from somewhere, but he wasn't sure from where.

"What if the illegal things you do at the moment won't allow you to become an honest detective? What if the darkness forces you to become a corrupt one?" she asked and Shinichi shook his head.  
"Then I'll purge the darkness as my first act as an _honest_ detective," the thief stated with a hard gaze and watched the woman think for a while.

"Cool Guy, you might just be the Silver Bullet I need; the old one is losing his touch," she smirked and Shinichi's eyes widened.  
"Vermouth?" he asked and stared.  
"You're lucky that it was me you told that and not the itsy bitsy Spider you're working for, Night Baron," Vermouth smirked and stood up, making Shinichi follow her, "you're much younger than I thought you would be, but according to Marezzo René Martin has solved very difficult cases and is a genius; did you really solve them, or are the cases make-believe?"  
"No, I did solve those cases," Shinichi stated and allowed his voice to grow lighter as it reverted back to his real one, "are you working with the FBI?"  
"Of course not, I'm loyal to the organization until I can see the victory clear as day, as you should be," Vermouth smirked and picked up her helmet, "be careful with whom you trust. There might be those who tries to get you to betray us, but their mission is to inspect how loyal you are." The woman smirked, turned around and walked away, making Shinichi get another flash; he'd seen that kind of stance. The confident smile, cold eyes, the way she moved and her voice. He clearly remembered a red dress and a gun, and suddenly Shinichi realised where he'd seen her before. Chris Vineyard, a movie star. Avaron loved her movies; no wonder he recognized her.

"Get well soon," the thief called back to her, just as she was about to walk out the door.  
"You too, boy," Vermouth threw a smile over her shoulder and then saw that the thief had vanished without a sound, "well done, Chivas Regal, well done indeed."

* * *

A/N: Haha! Shinichi is Chivas Regal, since they have a whisky called Le Baron. And I like the look of the label.  
Why does Vermouth know? Short answer; Marezzo

* * *

**Answer to Guest review; D**  
Hahaha! Indeed, you became review no.100. Yea, and the other question is already answered since this story updates much slower than OFAW ;)  
I'm glad that you enjoy reading my work!


	13. A Ladies' Man

A/N:

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 15  
Uploaded: 2012-12-10  
Chapter rating: T  
Words: 2,300

* * *

**Chap. 13  
A Ladies' Man**

Satoru had woken up early, very early, and he couldn't go back to sleep, so after twisting and turning in bed for a while he glared on the watch and got up.  
"Sat-chan?" Avaron mumbled as she was awakened despite his careful moves and sent a glance to the alarm clock before sighing and continuing in her mumbling voice, "it's only five."  
"I'm sorry, love," he whispered and gave her a kiss on her forehead, "go back to sleep."

After only twenty minutes Satoru sat by the table with his hands loosely wrapped around a warm coffee cup and stared thoughtfully out though the window to the calm street where only a few cars and people passed. Avaron yawned and took his half filled cup, downing it in one sweep.

"I feel like a walking dead, yet I can't fall asleep," she muttered and sat down in her husband's lap, lying her head on his shoulder.  
"Sorry for waking you," he mumbled and the woman shrugged.  
"It's okay, honey," she whispered and was then lifted up by Satoru and carried to the couch so that they could watch TV together.

* * *

"Why don't we wake the sleepyhead?" Satoru asked with a smirk after an hour had passed as the idea entered his mind and made Avaron chuckle, "he's supposed to get up in a little while anyway."  
"He'll kill you," she snickered with an amused smile and got up from the couch.  
"Punishment for making us worry," Satoru winked and got up only to look around the small apartment that consisted of the combined kitchen and living room, two bedrooms, a tiny hallway and a bathroom.

Satoru woke the sleeping teenager that drowsily tried to bat him away.  
"Come on, Shinichi! Wake up!" the conman called out and pulled his adoptive son out of bed.  
"Yea yea," Shinichi mumbled without opening his eyes, swaying a bit as he stood, "I'm awake."  
"We have lots of things to do today, so you can't sleep all afternoon!" Satoru grinned as he pushed the teenager out of his room and into the bathroom, "take a shower and get ready!" The young thief opened one eye as his father disappeared out the door and groaned from the sharp light, making him close it again and rub his eyes.

Satoru and Avaron made a proper breakfast and as the shower turned off Satoru turned the clock forward six hours.

"I can't believe that I slept that long," Shinichi muttered while glaring to the clock and then saw the delicious breakfast that was being placed on the table, "dad, how long have you been up? Couldn't you have woken me earlier?"  
"Oh? We've only been up two hours," the man lied with a smile, "get dressed and join us for breakfast!" Shinichi nodded an answer and yawned before he walked into his room.

Avaron smacked a hand over her forehead and attracted her husband's attention by doing so. She gestured to her wrist and Satoru's eyes widened; he had completely forgotten about his son's watch.

"Dad! Don't come in while I'm changing!" Shinichi complained when the man walked into his room after he'd pulled on a pair of pants.  
"I have such a wonderful day planned!" Satoru laughed as he backed towards his son's night table and snatched the wristwatch and mobile from it. "Today I'm going to teach you about women," he grinned and turned around to pretend to look out through the window as he changed the time, "it's a dangerous path, full of traps and dead-ends, but it's a necessary skill to know. I should've taught you this long ago, but you weren't interested in conning rich women or getting married. And you're still too young to do that; you don't look professional enough, but in a few years, and with a bit of makeup you can continue in my business." Satoru placed the watch back on the table and turned around, seeing his son give him an unimpressed look after he pulled a shirt over his head.  
"I don't want to be a conman, you know that," he muttered annoyed and walked around his father to get his watch.  
"But it's a great skill to have; to be able to keep cool and be anyone!" Satoru grinned while he followed Shinichi out of his room, "I know that you already have quite a skill at that since you have fooled the police, but it's nothing wrong with refining it!"  
"_That_ is at least something we can agree on," Shinichi confessed and took a place by the round table, "I want to know how to tell when a woman is about to attack me." Both of his parents laughed at his remark and he eyed them in confusion.  
"Believe me, Shinichi," Avaron snickered as she placed the coffee press on the table, "that won't be something you're muttering about in a few years!"

* * *

They trained pickup lines for hours and Shinichi was surprised of how many tells and traps there were, not only was the approach very important, but his voice and manners too; he was forced to sense the air in case the woman thought he was to forceful, feeble or if he came off as pathetic, and it always differentiated from woman to woman. It wasn't until they actually went out for ''dinner'' that he realised that it was lunchtime.

"Dad, why didn't you tell me that you woke me up at half past six?" Shinichi glared at his father in annoyance after seeing the watch at the restaurant and made his mother start to giggle.  
"Because you would've gone back to bed, and half past six is a perfect time to get up," Satoru winked and lowered his voice as he leaned forward, "and many normal families with children have to get up around that time in order to make it to school."  
"I've been in school," Shinichi smiled strained at his father, looking more annoyed than he actually was.  
"You were always late," his father retorted with a grin.  
"Not always," the teenager stated and smiled at the waitresses that came with the food to their table. His father sent him a challenging glance, telling him to try to impress the woman despite her being around her mid-twenties to thirties and might not appreciate being hit on by a young looking teenager.  
"Excuse me miss," Shinichi said in perfect French after glaring at his father, "but you should forget him. He was obviously out of his mind for leaving such a wonderful lady after such a long time."

"Eh?" the woman blinked confused at the teenager by the table while Satoru massages his temples in exhaustion; _that_ was not what he had taught his son to do. Now he just came off as a creepy stalker-ish type.  
"Excuse me?" the waitress asked and Shinichi began explaining.  
"You've been crying and not getting much sleep, going by the redness of your eyes and the dark circles under them. You're a bit dizzy from the lack of sleep and you're developing a headache, seeing as you stumbled a bit when you walked and touched your forehead after you left with our order. There's a thin line on your finger from where your wedding ring used to be, so it was quite recent. The name's François de Cayeux, a detective," the young thief gave her a friendly smile and saw how the woman relaxed a bit.  
"Wow, you're good," she sighed relieved and smiled as she took a better look at him, "I'm coping, and is there anything more you can tell me about myself?"  
"You have two pets, quite possibly two black cats, one long haired and one shorthaired, and you walked to work today," Shinichi smiled towards her and she shook her head.  
"Almost correct; the cats are my mother's. I spent the night at her place. Now, if there's anything you need just call me over," the waitress looked around the table and then winked to Shinichi as she left, making the teenager grin.

"I can't believe you just did that," Satoru sighed and shook his head as he started eating, "and that she liked it..." The man sent a glance to his wife seeing her snicker quietly.  
"She was intrigued by the fact that he could see so much from almost nothing, but she would most likely not fall for him if he continued in the same manner; that would just be creepy," Avaron explained with a smile and sent a glance to a woman with a black handbag, knowing that her son saw the gesture, "try her when she's about to leave. She seems to be around twenty, so you look more like a viable partner option." Shinichi sighed in a silent expiration, not liking that his parents were ganging up on him.  
"Oh, don't look as if we're torturing you," Satoru laughed, "this training is just like the fighting. It's useless until you find a way to use it."  
"Fine, fine," Shinichi muttered and started to eat; as soon as he got back to England he'd make contact with the famous illusionist and mentalist Daran Black about what he had learnt from two French magicians about hypnosis, linguistic programming, cold reading and illusions. All he would need to do was pretend that he was writing something for a school or a university. As the thief thought about the mentalist the young woman got up from her table. Shinichi registered the movement and got up, stealing her wallet without her noticing as he passed her. He bent down beside her table and pretended to pick up her wallet before he ran up to the woman just as she was about to leave the restaurant.

His parents smiled as they watched him hand over the wallet and then continue speaking with her indoors as her friends waited outside. Satoru saw how the girl grew suspicious and then widened her eyes in shock before she slapped his son and left.  
_"What?"_ Shinichi gaped and Satoru began to laugh as his son took the walk of shame back to their table, seemingly not even aware that he was supposed to look humiliated or that he was being watched by everyone.  
"I gave her the wallet!" he complained loudly to his laughing father, allowing half of the restaurant to hear him, "why did she slap me?! I don't get this at all!"

* * *

His father kept insisting that he trained female interactions even after they got to England, and between the detective work he did for the police, planning the next heist, preparing for any traps by Nightmare, training himself to resist hypnosis and training 'the art of seduction' he competed with the blonde detective, Hakuba, who proved to be more of a challenge that Shinichi had originally thought. In the beginning of their competing Shinichi was well aware that the entire police force at that station had a bet about who would come out on top, but as a week passed he discovered that the detective was actually a real fan of Sherlock Holmes and not just an eccentric cosplayer that thought the detective had good-looking clothes. The icy competition and conversations became friendlier after that, until they were actually laughing, working cases together and began planning for the capture of Night Baron, up until Shinichi sent out a heist note to one of the police stations in Birmingham.

* * *

The heist went without problems since Nightmare saw thought the SAPO-agent's plan while Shinichi had full insight into his and Hakuba's plan. This time he'd been let inside the building together with Hakuba and thereby been able to change into his outfit on the inside. He'd stolen the jewels in a flare of smoke-filled chaos and then vanished mysteriously, not even using Nightmare's plan.

"I'm going to be a bit late; the teenagers came up with a nasty trap for me," he'd whispered in the small headset to the mysterious planner as he changed back to his current identity and then mixed back in with the officers until they all left after they'd failed in protecting the jewels.

Shinichi sneaked away after saying goodbye to Hakuba and then headed to where Nightmare was supposed to meet him, all the while surveilled by his parents and then waited on the roof.  
"Why didn't you use my plan?" a man asked from behind him and Shinichi turned around, looking relaxed, "you know that I had taken the detectives' plan into consideration."  
"I got stuck," the thief shrugged, knowing that Arthur Holmes couldn't suddenly vanish on a heist without arousing suspicion, "so I had to improvise."  
"You _are_ as good as you seem to be, so the only reason you didn't use my plan is because you don't trust me yet," Nightmare stated logically and slightly tilted his head.  
"Next heist will be different," Shinichi stated calmly as he felt danger in the air and watched how the man relaxed ever so slightly, "but I can't give you half of the loot."  
"_What?_" Nightmare asked harshly and scowled behind his mask, but the thief only raised his hand.  
"My buyer expects everything, and I assume that you're going to exchange the jewels for money anyway so why don't I just pay you in hard cash from the very start?" Shinichi grinned, knowing that his father was holding a gun towards the planner that after a moment of consideration touched his mask.  
"That sounds very good," Nightmare hummed contently, "it seems like we have a new deal."  
"That's what I thought," the teenager smirked and took up a smaller bag from his large one that he threw to the man, "that's more than you'd be able to get by yourself, enjoy your money and see you in two weeks in Leeds." The thief in black took a step back and fell off the roof, jumping through the window into an empty apartment, closed the window and then vanished as if he'd never been there.

* * *

A/N; Shinichi isn't in disguise so he can't use René Martin.  
François Villon - A French thief during the 1460  
Colin de Cayeux – François' accomplice  
Daran Black – Derren Brown; he's awesome, check him out if you haven't heard of him.

* * *

**Answer to guest review; D  
**Yea, that's actually something I miss a bit in DC! Now that you mentioned it! He actually is more like James Bond!  
Thank you! It makes me happy to hear that :D

**Answer to guest review; Clare  
**Sorry, sorry, I'm so slow at updating this story! Shame on me! -And I like TP, so I should be able to update more often.  
Yea, that was actually a scene that was supposed to be in OFAW, but about a random book, but the entire scene became erased in the writing-process XD And of course changed to fit this better! It's so funny how plot-thingies jumps between characters and between stories!  
That will most likely come up further into the story ;)


	14. The Mistake of Arthur Holmes

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 15  
Uploaded: 2012-12-19  
Chapter rating: T  
Words: 2,400

* * *

**Chap. 14**  
**The Mistake of Arthur Holmes**

Heist after heist went by and Shinichi went along with Nightmare's plans, growing more and more suspicious of him, not liking the fact that he knew every single thing that Arthur Holmes and Saguru Hakuba did. The planner had somehow full insight into the police's plans, even the time Shinichi worked alone and with the cameras turned off. Only one knew of his traps that time; the chief and after careful scrutiny of his own boss he decided that he couldn't be Nightmare, mainly because if his body-shape; he wasn't skinny or tall enough. He voiced his concern to the blonde detective that reacted with surprise. Shinichi never said anything about his secret planner, but he did complain over the fact that Night Baron knew of every single trap that had been set in place and Hakuba had just smiled.

"You know," he'd said, "I actually considered you to be Night Baron, but the chief assured me that he wouldn't tell anyone of my trap. I assured myself that he wasn't bugged and then bought him a lunch, asking if he told anyone in the station, but he stated that he hadn't."  
"Pfft, me? Night Baron?" Shinichi snorted only receiving a shrug as an answer, "that's the dumbest idea I've ever heard. I'm way too young to be Night Baron! My prime suspect was actually chief Walker."  
"What?" Hakuba chuckled, "that if one thing is a really stupid theory!"  
"Hey!" Shinichi called out in mock offence as the detective continued.  
"He's got alibis for every single one of the heists!"  
"Yea, but still... He was the only one who knew of my plan, except Night Baron," Shinichi muttered annoyed, "I hate that he sometimes mocks me by altering it!"  
"That's spiteful! Using my own trap to catch myself in! And he's getting more comfortable with these kind of heists too, since he's not doing them as quickly as he possibly can, but what bugs me even more is the fact that he's gotten Night Baron groupies. What's wrong with people?"  
"What? He has groupies?" Shinichi asked stunned and made the detective deadpan.

"You read the newspaper; how can you not know?" he asked annoyed.  
"I only read about Night Baron or any hard cases that might exist out there. I'm not really interested in anything else," Shinichi confessed and laughed nervously as he rubbed his neck.  
"Well, Night Baron's fan club has been in a war with the Yuusakans; that's what the fans of the books call themselves, saying that he's simply stealing the character and doesn't deserve to be called Night Baron, but the Yuusakans are beginning to fall apart since more and more Yuusakans have become fans of both ever since he's begun notifying the police. Everyone was outraged that one time that the police kept it quiet and didn't notify the press."  
"Oh? I thought everyone was reporters out there. I only know that there were a few people to watch the time when Delon predicted a location," Shinichi confessed and decided to look into the fan club. He was a fan of Yuusaku, so he'd fit right in with the Yuusakans and since he was Night Baron he knew of everything that the thief had done.

"Yes, and every heist there have been people watching and hoping to see him. It escalated completely after he saved that woman, and after the chief posted that wanted-poster on the news he's gotten a lot of female fans, sure the upper part of his face was hidden from the cameras and the sketch artist thought that it was a good idea to paint his mask over that part of his face. They're all insane! He's just a bloody thief who did one decent thing, and now some of his fans wants him to marry them!"  
"_What?_" Shinichi gaped in shock, "but they don't even know him!" Hakuba only scowled, annoyed that he, one of the best detectives, was constantly outwitted by a ridiculous show-off in a hat, mask and a long mantle; it just wasn't right.

* * *

After two months of working together with the planner, and keeping it all a secret from Spider, he'd had the time to confirm that none of the officers were being threatened, no child had been kidnapped, no one was receiving large amounts of money to their account and he'd learnt the tricks of his trade, so Nightmare was expendable. It still bothered him that Nightmare knew so much about what happened on the inside of the police station and the only conclusion that he could come up with was that he actually was an officer of some kind, someone trusted that could gain access to information without being noticed. He could even be the janitor or a cleaner.

Shinichi had decided to get rid of him, especially after Spider had made him a real member, meaning that he no longer got paid whenever he showed up to make the exchange. He got paid monthly instead, which was a more reliable source of income that he liked, even though he wasn't paid nearly as much as before, but he accepted it none the less and he'd even asked the magician how Whisky was going to tell if he ever got the jewel he was looking for, but Spider didn't know and since Shinichi couldn't see any deception in his eyes he'd accepted it as truth.

The thief yawned a bit as he sat in a tree outside of a huge mansion after he'd gotten over the large stone wall surrounding it. He knew the layout of the rooms and the routines of the staff, so as soon as he saw the woman who owned the house go to bed around two he shot the grappling hook to one of the angel statues that adorned the edges of the roof, staying just above the movement sensors to the garden lights as he swung to a balcony. He detached the grappling hook and quickly reeled it in, looking into the room that had been dark since ten, but it was school tomorrow so he didn't expect anything less. Shinichi smirked pleased as he barely had to touch the lock on the door to make it unlock with a small click and he made his way inside as silent as a small gust of wind. He allowed his eyes to grow accustomed to the darkness that was only lit with the moonlight that made its way through the window and the glass door.

He listened to the deep breathing of the sleeping teenage boy that owned the room as he carefully pulled out a file inside a sealed plastic bag that he had examined and made sure that there wasn't even the ghost of a fingerprint or a single trace of evidence on it. He opened the plastic bag and pulled out the file before he returned the plastic to his inner pocket. Shinichi sat down in a chair and made sure that everything that was supposed to be in the file really was there. The thief sent a glance to the sleeping detective, grinning as he got up, holding the file in his right and pulled out a gun with his left before he neared his friend. Restraining an amused chuckle Shinichi gently blew into the blonde's ear, making him stir with an irritated sound and try to cover his ear in his sleep, only to end up laying his arm on his shoulder instead. As he blew a second time the detective's eyes flew open and he jolted his head in the thief's direction only to jump back and hit the wall. Shinichi pressed the gun against Hakuba's throat as he saw that the detective was about to throw himself at him.

"A-ah, no-no, no funny business," Shinichi smirked amused as Hakuba glared at him with hate, trying to ignore the cold steel from the gun.  
"Night Baron," the detective forced out from gritted teeth, "taking up more traits from your idol, I see."  
"Maybe," the thief tilted his head while Hakuba tried to mentally peal the mask from his face. "You see, I have a problem," Shinichi grinned and placed the file on the pillow, "I've been suffering from a nightmare and decided to get away from it. He and I won't meet again, and I just wanted to make you law abiders aware of him, since he kills people and disposes of their bodies, but who cares if a few criminals goes missing, right?" Shinichi grinned at the disgruntled look on Hakuba's face as he took the gun away and took a few steps back.  
"Why do you steal?"  
"Ooh, I've been expecting that famous question, but what kind of mystery would that question hold if it got an answer that easily?" Shinichi opened the door still pointing the gun towards the detective, seemingly hesitating.

Hakuba swallowed as he saw that the grip on the gun tightened and how the finger moved. The blonde twitched as a spray of water hit him in his forehead and he heard the dark-clad thief chuckle in amusement before he disappeared out to the balcony.

"_Son of a bitch!_" Hakuba called out and ran out into the empty night where the silence was only interrupted by his angry huffs as he glared over the facade of the building and the garden, seeing no movement. The detective pushed a flowerpot over the edge and watched it activate the garden lights, lighting up that part of the area in a strong light and glared down, trying to see a shadow that didn't fit. Shinichi hung under the balcony on pillar that went from the wall to it, trying to not laugh; the detective's expression when he got hit with water had been priceless. A small clatter was heard as something fell from the roof and Shinichi peaked out from underneath the balcony to see the detective climbing on the adornments of the wall on his way to the roof. As the blonde got halfway Shinichi made his way back onto the balcony without a single sound and then snuck inside, locking the blonde out.

Shinichi was about to walk through the house then the file caught his attention and he smiled while he changed its location to the desk, closing the other files that lay there opened and placed them in a pile in a drawer so that only his file was occupying the desk space. With a smile he took a pencil and wrote a few sentences on the top of the file before he left running through the house, startling a maid that was walking towards her room after locking the front door.

With an irritated scowl Hakuba had been forced to crush one of the glass panes in the glass door so that he could unlock it from the inside, only to find that Night Baron had left him a message and a black rose.  
_"Farewell Mr. Timetaker and happy hunting! This fine country has offered me excellent jewels and I do hope that someday our paths will cross again.  
~Night Baron_."

* * *

Later that week there was a fire in a top floor flat, which resulted in the entire place burnt to crisp even though the rest of the building had sustained minimal damage and Shinichi sighed as he watched what had been his home for a couple of months burn; another identity had been erased and could never be used again. Pretending to be a Japanese tourist, he walked around in the normal tourist-gear, waiting for the coroner to identify the body as Arthur Holmes; a teenager from Aberdeen, burnt so badly that they couldn't even tell that the bones and flesh was fake and forced them to identify him from a serial number from a pacemaker implant Arthur had gotten when his heart was damaged in the car crash that killed his parents. Shinichi had even found a doctor that had passed away and made him the one who put it in, but it wasn't until he watched Hakuba run out from the police station and vanish into his caretaker's car that he realised that he had made a serious mistake.

As Shinichi spun around to get into a cab he bumped into someone, only to realise that Satoru and his mother had showed up out of nowhere, not that he wasn't used to that.  
"Mom, dad, I made a mistake, a terrible, terrible mistake," he stated in distress, seeing confusion in his parents' eyes, "I didn't realise it, but when I simply disposed of my identity I killed Hakuba's friend; the only one he had. I shouldn't have done that, but I didn't realise it before now." Satoru watched the car holding a crying teenage detective take off and pulled his son into his arms while his mother joined in.  
"It's okay, Shinichi, we all makes mistakes. Some are reversible, some are not," Satoru stated silently.  
"I have to tell him that Night Baron was Arthur Holmes, and that I'm not dead," Shinichi breathed out in a shivering sigh.  
"You know that you can't do that," Avaron whispered and stroke his hair, "he will despise you and tell everyone that Night Baron is a detective that before he strikes gains the trust of the police. If you tell him you will never be able to be a detective again and you will be locked into the life of a thief, but it's your choice."  
"I don't want to hurt Hakuba," he whispered and felt a tear escape despite his best attempts to hold everything back, knowing that he had already chosen the path of a thief that was trying to be a detective, "I will never make that mistake again..."

The thief was troubled and filled with shame as he kept an eye on his mourning friend up until a week after the funeral, a funeral that Night Baron had attended. The teenager made his father go so that the height difference would be slightly off and Satoru had his moustache, his blonde hair and a mask that changed his features, and Shinichi could see from afar that no officer noticed him, and no one did as he walked up to the casket and placed a single black rose among the sea of red ones from the police, no one except one.  
"Why are you here?" the blonde detective whispered and took eye contact with the thief, noting his height and that he had green eyes full of sadness.  
"Just paying my respects," Satoru whispered back in Night Baron's calm voice and Hakuba looked to the casket with a nod, placing his red rose there and then went back to the audience, followed by the thief that had vanished without a trace before the ceremony was over.

* * *

A/N; Why does everything I write turn out a bit sad? *pout* Bad Brain! You're supposed to write a happy story! Happy from now on, get it right Brain!


	15. The New Rival Emerges

A/N: Feel the Christmas feeling stir! :D Now, this was supposed to have been updated yesterday, but I seriously didn't have time to sit down and do that.

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 16  
Uploaded: 2012-12-25  
Chapter rating: K+  
Words: 3,600

* * *

**Chap. 15  
The New Rival Emerges**

Night Baron surfaced in other countries striking exhibit after exhibit, no matter the security, and Shinichi trained hard, trying to learn how to resist the hypnosis and then finally succeeded during a magic show held by Spider, but that didn't stop him from still training it. He also worked hard and carefully on collecting data on the Organization he was working for and he met the young scientist by the codename Sherry after he'd stolen research, discovering that she was unbelievably apathetic to human suffering while her blue-grey eyes seemed to be deprived of all life; like a caged animal that just wished for its misery to end. He passed the sister of the scientist as he was about to leave and watched the teenager with auburn shoulder length hair come to life as she greeted her family member, hearing that the woman had found a way to leave the Organization and Shinichi had smiled as he closed the door, happy that not everyone on the inside wanted to be there.

Using his thievery skills he stole information and copied whatever they were doing, gathering evidence so that they one day would be destroyed. He met Gin many times, a very sharp and disturbing man with long silver hair that had a lackey as dumb as he was skilled with his gun, and just as loyal. Shinichi found that he didn't like them at all, especially not Gin's cold eyes that simply thirsted for more bloodshed. He'd completed his tasks for the man with perfection and been both praised and insulted in the same sentence by him since Gin didn't approve of his refusal to kill. Shinichi never used his Night Baron persona when he did the Organization's dirty work; he didn't want to insult the detective and author who created him by staining the name. The more he worked the less it seemed like he knew about them and it looked like it would take a lot longer than a few years to take them down, maybe even a lifetime, and he didn't want to spend a lifetime in their presence, so he even considered leaving and going underground.

A year after he left England he became fascinated by a headline in an American newspaper in Phoenix and he stopped to buy it with a smile before he headed into a park.  
"Gentleman Thief KID returns after 8 years! Starlight, valued at 3,6 million dollars, stolen!" it called out in thick letters, one of many headlines about the thief. Shinichi knew everything about the thief and about the murder of the man, so he pulled up the phone from his pocket and dialled a number.

"Hey, Spidy, it's Chivas, have you heard anything interesting on the news?" the sixteen-year-old asked with a voice that was darker than his normal voice.  
"I dare you to call me that again," the magician muttered in the phone and then sighed, knowing that the other was going to ignore him and knew that he would be the first in line to offer up his services as an assassin if the Organization ever got tired of the thief, "what particular news are you talking about?"

"Kaitou KID has resurfaced again," Shinichi stated and looked around, seeing families having picnics and playing with dogs and children, but no one was close enough to listen in.  
"That's not possible!" Spider shouted angrily, "he's dead!"  
"Well, you might've killed someone, but what if it was the wrong person?"  
"It wasn't wrong! What did he steal?!"  
"A large diamond called Starlight, with a value of 3,6 million dollars, why? Was that the one Anokata wanted?"  
"Starlight, huh? We've checked that one," the man hummed, "KID was a really big star in Japan, so maybe it's an imposter, but if that's the case, why is he going after jewels? Have you told Whisky yet?"  
"Hah! He probably already knows! If it's front page news in USA, then it's also that in Japan!"  
"Then why did you tell me this?"  
"Are you sure that Kuroba Toichi was Kaitou KID?"  
"Yes,"  
"Are you sure that you actually took care of him and that he didn't escape while you were performing?" there was silence after the question and Shinichi waited.

"I can't be one hundred percent sure, since after I went to the stage I never saw the body, so it's possible that he's alive, but I have to get out on stage in less than a minute, so in case Whisky has missed it, call him," Spider commanded and Shinichi raised an eyebrow before he hung up and dialled the phone again, waiting nervously, already aware of the 16 hour time difference. Shinichi was proud as he was slowly being more trusted by the Organization and it was the first time that he'd been given permission to call their boss, sure, he had worked for both Vermouth, Gin and Sherry, who were bosses in their own fields, but he'd never been in contact with Whisky.

"Chivas Regal," Shinichi stated as he heard the small click in the phone.  
"Yes, LeBaron?" a voice asked and the thief memorized it.  
"I was wondering what the plan to deal with Kaitou KID was? He's taking jewels, and I thought that since that's my area of expertise I might be needed," Shinichi stated calmly and heard the man hum contently to the offer.  
"Well, you are good, but you wouldn't kill him, would you?"  
"No, as you know I won't kill. Stealing is my job."  
"Thought so, and Spider thought that he dealt with him eight years ago, but I watched the performance on TV. This is Toichi; I recognised his magic, and we'll let him be for now. Killing him without leaving evidence is hard when he draws so much attention to himself, but Snake will give him a warning if he continues to go after jewels. If he obeys he can play around all he likes."  
"Okay, call me if you need me," Shinichi stated.  
"I will, but that will only happen in Snake fails in convincing him or killing him, good evening, or is it morning where you are?" The busy signal reached his ears and Shinichi relaxed; the boss didn't seem too hard to deal with, compared to Gin, but he needed to get more information about him.

* * *

Every time the white-clad thief struck Shinichi watched it on the news and read it in the papers. His favourite heist was the so called 'Clock tower heist' when the Detective of the East showed up and shot away the cover that hung over the clock's face. Shinichi really enjoyed watching his idol Yuusaku chase Kaitou KID from time to time and he assumed that Yuusaku wasn't hunting the thief seriously, otherwise KID would've been in jail before he knew what happened and Shinichi quietly wondered what the detective would do if he came face to face with Night Baron; catch him? Test him to see if he was worthy? And then play with him like he did with Kaitou KID?

The more Shinichi saw of Kaitou KID, the more he began to doubt that it was the same thief, given that he was stealing different things and not just jewels. He decided that it wasn't the same after the thief stole a Christmas decoration on Christmas Day, a day which he spent in Bloomfield Hills in Michigan following his parents around that were scouting for targets. He disliked the uncomfortable and expensive coat as they walked around and laughed, but he was still happy that they were still with him. He never really grew accustomed to the dangerous life they all lived, but as he watched his father spoil his laughing mother at a high class restaurant he eyed the arm she had in a sling and got up from the table to give her a warm hug. Shinichi smiled happily at her and pulled out a gift for her, wrapped in a shining gold and red paper with designed Christmas trees on it.

"Merry Christmas, mom," he gave her a kiss on his cheek and handed over the gift, watching her open it and gape as it revealed a golden choker with small rubies hanging from it and a similar necklace.  
"Shinichi!" she exclaimed in surprise, "you certainly knows how to spoil a girl! And when did you get this?"  
"Ooh, I just took a small detour to Paris before I came home. Dad and I ordered it a few months ago; it's handmade to fit you and we were the ones who designed it. Guess why he got you to wear the red dress with bare shoulders," Shinichi winked as he took the gift from his mother and took off her pearls to replace them with the choker and the necklace.  
"Oh, you two!" she smiled and picked up a small mirror, "and you paid for it?"  
"Yes, Shinichi refused to do it any other way," Satoru laughed and got up and gave his wife a loving kiss that made Shinichi look away in embarrassment.

"Now my gift to you," Satoru said as he looked into his wife's eyes while Shinichi sat down to take another glance at the menu.  
"There's a second gift?" Avaron asked blushing as she was caught in the warm green eyes of her love.  
"Yes," Satoru grinned and pulled up a gift the size of a book from his bag and Shinichi peaked over the edge of the menu, intrigued by the fact that his father had stated that he'd found the best gift yet. Avaron smiled and took it, carefully opening it, only to reveal that it was plastic container, there to hide that the gift contained a red, velvet wedding ring box.

"Aw, Satoru!" Avaron giggled and opened the plastic box only for her husband to steal the ring box. Shinichi rolled his eyes as the man went down on one knee and opened the little box towards her, making the woman giggle uncontrollably.  
"Avaron, my love, will you be my partner in crime?" the man asked quietly with a happy grin and Shinichi raised his eyebrows, wondering what it was that kept his mother laughing.  
"Ooh, Satoru! You never seem to be unable to surprise me," the woman sighed after she finished laughing and looked at her grinning husband.  
"Everyone's staring at us as discreetly as they can, and you should answer," the man chuckled and made Avaron nod.  
"Yes, Satoru, I will," she smiled and Shinichi eyed the purple plastic ring that was revealed as his father placed it on Avaron's finger. The teenager frowned as he saw that the ring was something he could've gotten from any children's toy machine and that couldn't cost more than a dollar. He looked between his parents with a frown, wondering how it could be 'priceless' as Satoru stood up and threw his arms out.

"She said yes!" he called out and received polite applauds from the other guests while Avaron stood up and kissed him.  
"So you're getting married again?" Shinichi asked quietly and saw that a waiter was heading to their table and he got prepared to order. The waiter was a young man in his twenties and he seemed amused by the ring as Avaron showed it off, happily ordering every single plate that she wanted to taste while explaining why the ring was priceless even if it wasn't gold or jewels. Satoru followed the same procedures, making sure that he didn't order the same dish as his wife and then grinned challengingly towards his son, daring him to order more than him and the young thief gave him an unimpressed look.

"Please ignore my insane parents," Shinichi smiled as he leaned forward a bit and focused on the waiter as he tried to ignore his father's gaze, "I'd like the number nineteen, and water to drink. I've heard that this restaurant has an excellent chocolate fudge, have you tasted it? Or should I ignore it and maybe order something else for dessert? I've heard that the vanilla ice cream is made here by the chef."  
"Yes, I've had it, and it was great, and the ice cream is actually delicious. I certainly recommend any dessert that includes it. Nothing more?" the young man asked a bit nervously while a bit of colour made its way to his cheeks and Shinichi frowned a bit.  
"Maybe, I haven't really decided which dessert to take, so if you could come back later I'd appreciate it."  
"Absolutely," the waiter nodded and left, making Shinichi turn back to his parents that were frowning at him.  
"What? I'm not eating like a pig, you know," he joked and saw the couple send each other a glance and he realised that there was something else going on. The two of them whispered a bit as Avaron did something on her phone and then showed her husband, causing the man to frown and shrug while Shinichi narrowed his eyes.

"Look at this," his mother demanded and handed him her phone, making Shinichi blink and raise his eyebrows as he looked at what appeared to be some kind of poster of a good-looking, male underwear model.  
"What's the gag?" the thief demanded to know as he handed the phone back seeing that they both were studying him, "_what?_"  
"Nothing, could you look at this too," Avaron asked and handed her phone to her husband, looking as he picked out a picture. They mumbled a bit to each other and then held up the phone for him to look at. Shinichi's eyes widened as he blushed and looked away in embarrassment.  
"Interesting," Satoru mumbled and Shinichi sent him an annoyed expression.  
"What's with the picture of the naked woman?" the teenager growled lowly as his blush got brighter.

"Are you gay?" the man asked suspiciously and narrowed his eyes, "it's completely fine if you are; I'm just curious. It actually gives a completely new mark-territory, a territory that I haven't explored."  
"No? I mean, I've never been in love so I could be, but why would you even bring this up?"  
"You don't even realise it, do you?" Satoru rolled his eyes with a sigh as Avaron giggled.  
"Obviously, since I have to ask; _realise what?_"  
"You just tried to seduce that waiter," Satoru stated and Shinichi deadpanned.  
"No, I didn't, I was genuinely interested in the desserts,"  
"Not relevant," his father continued, "you had your seducing-look on, and you were so obvious that you even made the waiter nervous."  
"What? But I wasn't trying to-, I-, are you serious?"'  
"Yes... Shinichi, when you look at him, do you feel anything? Or are you not interested yet, you seems to be a bit slow."  
"Gee, thanks-,"  
"I meant undeveloped in that area, you're reacting a bit; I saw your pupils dilate when you saw the picture of the man, but you only reacted with embarrassment to the woman, and not with any real interest, so gay or bi?"  
"Can we please not talk about this here, in a restaurant, and maybe never ever bring it up again?" Shinichi begged and pushed a hand against his burning cheek, watching his mother giggle quietly at her son's embarrassment.  
"We'll talk later, but could you just look at him and tell me what comes to mind," Satoru asked and nodded out on the floor where the same waiter was taking another table's order.

"Slim, handsome," Shinichi studied the waiter that smiled, "a nice smile, good teeth, blonde, green eyes going over towards a nice brown gold-ish colour, plays piano, takes care of himself; he both lives alone and works out to keep his shape, intelligent, reads a lot," the young thief turned to his father with a sharp smile, "and he's honest."  
"Huh?" Satoru frowned, ignoring the innuendo to his criminality, "that's interesting, Shinichi. But you just used that deducing-stuff to describe his looks before his traits and interests, and you never do that. The only thing I see from him is that he's a waiter, not much money and not a mark."

"Maybe so, but you aren't aware that mom is on her period now, and that the strong painkillers she takes for the knife wound makes even her unaware of her abdominal pain," Shinichi glared at his parents that both blushed and sent each other a glance, "I can tell from her hair, skin and nails."  
"What don't you notice?" Satoru asked nervously and decided to drop the conversation about his son's sexuality since he was getting defensive and saw the young thief grin.  
"Nothing, I see _everything_," the young thief leaned forward, "take a moment to consider the implications of that sentence, and that the both of you smell of another hotel doesn't actually increase your odds of going undetected. If you want time alone I can go out. Study at the library, eat out, go for a movie and try to seduce someone, while you have some _alone time_."  
"It's horrible how both brilliantly blunt and subtle you can be at the same time," the man complained and sent his son an awkward look while Avaron blushed, "and we're moving on, but don't think that I don't have questions for you. Now, would you like your gift?"

"You don't have to give me a gift," Shinichi stated and watched his mother pull up a rather large package from her handbag, too large to contain a book.  
"But we wanted to," his mother smiled and handed it over the table, "and you have no idea how hard it is to find something for someone like you. Be careful when you open it; you wouldn't want the other guests to see." Shinichi hesitated and sent his parents a suspicious glance, wondering if the gift would explode or something like that, but still opened it carefully, revealing a metallic black box. He unlocked the locks on its sides and opened the lid revealing a black gun, shimmering in the same kind of blue that his clothes did.

"Is it real?" he asked intrigued in a low voice so that no one would hear him and let his fingers slide over the cold metal.  
"Yes, and no," Satoru smirked as he leaned his chin in his hand and watched his son frown at him, "it might have been a Taurus before, but not anymore."  
"And that means..." he hesitated, "that it's more than just a gun?"  
"Exactly," the man whispered and Shinichi carefully took up the front of it, seeing three holes instead of one, "bullets, darts and water. Now that's the real deal. Twelve bullets for when you are in grave danger; we _do_ value your life over everyone else's, especially those alcoholic types. Twenty darts if you want to put someone to sleep for ten to twenty minutes, depending on body type, and a tiny tank that contains water for when you're goofing off."  
"How did you fit everything inside a simple gun?" Shinichi whispered and took out the magazine and studied it, seeing that instead of only one slot for ammunition there was one for bullets and one for water.

"We went to multiple science fairs and gun fairs, both secret ones that were closed to the public and normal ones," Avaron smiled and took her husband's hand, "then we made it, and remade it, and remade it, and remade it again. We took the water-idea from the gun you remade, and the darts from this scatter-brained scientist in Japan. I think his name was Agasa Hiroshi. He made a watch for his friend's daughter that contained one needle that put people to sleep so that she could protect herself if she ever needed. He had a bunch of different ideas and inventions, most useless, but some were really interesting."  
"But considering what you do we thought that _one_ needle was a bit too little," Satoru filled in and Shinichi eyed the gun with amazement.  
"Where does the needles go?" he asked and watched the blue shimmer of the black gun.  
"They are a clip on the top, but we'll show you how it works when we gets home," the man smiled and watched how their waiter made his way to their table, holding some of their food.  
"Thank you, mom, dad. I'm speechless," Shinichi closed the black metallic box and locked it as he placed it in his lap, making both of his parents smile happily. "But that idea of a watch is pretty good; it's so concealed. I mean; a watch isn't dangerous," Shinichi mused, deep in thought as the waiter placed his food and water in front of him. The thief blinked down at the food and then sent a sunny smile to the waiter, "thank you, Lance."

"Shinichi, don't do that detective-deducing-thing; it creeps people out!" Satoru sighed as the waiter looked startled.  
"Two words," Shinichi snorted, "name tag." Everyone by the table blinked and then looked embarrassed as they read the name 'Lance' on the tag.  
"Of course," the waiter smiled, "I completely forgot that I was wearing one."  
"I understand, I worked in a shop once and forgot that I was wearing it," Shinichi lied with a smile and his father sent his mother a meaning glance.  
"Would you like me to come back once you've eaten to take your dessert order?" Lance asked and both Avaron and Satoru studied the interacting teenagers, both keeping an unusually intense eye-contact.  
"That would be great. Oh!" Shinichi grinned as he came up with the best idea, "could you bring me coffee after I've eaten, and after that I'll decide which dessert."  
"Of course," Lance smiled and went to get more of their food.

"Wow, Shinichi," Avaron giggled, "I think that if you try you can get that guy to eat out of your hand."  
"He likes you," Satoru commented amused and Shinichi gave them both a glare.  
"I'm not hitting on him!" the teenager hissed annoyed.  
"You sure could've fooled me," his father teased and the younger thief decided to ignore him in favour of his food.

* * *

A/N; Thank you, Siren, for the idea that Agasa could have something with Night Baron's gadgets to do.


	16. New Places, New Names

A/N: So, I messed up the timeline a bit... But no worries, I totally know what I'm doing *randomly catches fire* Yep, totally know what I'm doing...

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 17  
Uploaded: 2013-01-04  
Chapter rating: T  
Words: 3,400

* * *

**Chap. 16  
New Places, New Names**

Shinichi had gaped in shock and excitement when he heard the news that his friend had joined Kaitou KID's heist and watched how Hakuba had gotten even more prideful; maybe because there was no one to challenge his intellect after Arthur died. The thief had been following the detective's work in the news and had seen every case he'd run into, even one where Spider was the perpetrator. The case had gone unsolved as the murderer was gone, but Shinichi knew that Spider had been shot by him after they'd had a gunfight. Hakuba had gone out in the news declaring that he would catch the assassin one day, calling him a three-eyed, eight-legged freak, and that there would be no one to stop him from throwing him in jail. Shinichi had heard that Spider had requested to kill the detective, but been denied since he was a high profile target that had just assured media that he was chasing a professional killer, so if he suddenly was killed it would raise too much awareness among the police that the Organization wouldn't be able to go undetected, so Spider had grumbled to himself but had backed down, knowing that he was in trouble for leaving evidence and almost getting caught.

Shinichi had been nervous once he got the order to go to Japan to steal the jewels before Kaitou KID got his hands on them, knowing that that meant that he would eventually meet Yuusaku, but once he got to Japan and walked through the streets he'd smiled and trained the language he knew but rarely used. He already had a new identity, an identity that his mother had invested a lot of time on to ease his worry over the fact that he might be scrutinized by Yuusaku in case the detective ever got suspicious of him. Even his parents had made their identities more thorough, hoping to be able to stay in Japan for a while, visiting some tourist spots and scamming people out of their money. The only thing Shinichi needed to do to breathe life into their identities was to put them into the police's computers, but he also needed to input the safety identities in case either one of them was caught.

Shinichi was staying at a hotel while his parents were hunting for an apartment, waiting for them to get an address to go with the identities. The young thief was sitting with the only luggage he had as he'd left the rest in a safe locker in the station and he was creating a fake medical history for training on his laptop, but then grew bored and began memorising streets and buildings through satellite maps. It was just after he'd eaten a very early dinner and was on his way back to his room that his parents called and happily announced the address of their new home, so Shinichi packed his computer into the bag and threw his night clothes and toothbrush in it too before he took it and walked out of the room, intending to return the key card, but when he was walking down the stairs to the lobby he heard a scream from the floor above.

The thief spun around and immediately headed up the stairs and into the corridor, seeing a woman stare into a room with a terrified look and then stumbled back as she tried to get away from the sight. Doors on both sides flung open and Shinichi took the roll of a detective, knowing that something was wrong.  
"Everybody, stay in your rooms!" he called out in an authoritarian voice as he pulled on plastic gloves and ran up to the opened door, seeing a man lying on his back with his throat sliced open, and made his way inside to examine the body.  
"Call the police!" he demanded and pointed to a man that had appeared from a neighbouring room to comfort the woman.  
'Obviously a friend of hers judging by the way he conducts himself, but possible lover,' Shinichi noted and began examining the body.

The rigor mortis suggested that the man had been dead for three hours, and the wounds told him that it was personal, someone strong and full of rage as the murderer had stabbed the body post mortem after watching the victim bleed out. The slit on the throat was precise and had only cut through one of the arteries and severed the windpipe, allowing the victim to stay alive for the maximum length of time while drowning in his own blood, so the murderer was good with knives, had medical training or prior experience. The blood on the victims hand was smeared, telling Shinichi that the man had grabbed into his attackers arm or hand, if the small scratches on the man's face was of any indication.

Shinichi could see that the wounds on the man's torso were deep, so the victim had trusted the murderer enough to turn his back to him or the murderer had somehow gotten a hold of the card to the door and had sneaked his way in, but since the victim was facing the door and the blood spatter from the artery confirmed that, the thief decided that it was more likely that the man trusted his attacker to not harm him. The teenager looked around the room and eyed the window before he went to examine it, seeing that it had the same kind of design that the window in his room had, so it couldn't have been opened more than a few centimetres, but still enough for a knife to pass through it, and since the window sill was clean the knife had to have been wrapped in something _if_ it went out the window.

The teenager quickly walked into the bathroom and looked around, knowing that the murderer must've gotten blood on him, judging by the mess of the murder, and saw that a large towel was missing, too thick to have been wrapped around the knife and pushed out the window. Getting out of the room he took off the gloves before he pulled out two black notebooks and then placed the one with a red dot in its corner back in his pocket and then began scribbling down the time of discovery and everything he'd seen in the other.

"Can I assume that you're the wife?" Shinichi asked the woman that was being supported by her friend as they stood up.  
"Yes, I am," she whispered and did everything in her power to not look into the room.  
"Who are you?! And what kind of authority do you have to be investigating this?" the man barked and Shinichi noted the similarities between them, deciding that they were brother and sister.  
"The name's Nozaki Shinichi and I'm a detective, and I'd be _very_ happy if you could answer my questions, since only the murderer would be the one who wouldn't want this case to be solved quickly," Shinichi stated and the man lost his hostility before he nodded, "thank you. Now, when was the last time you saw the victim?"

Shinichi had time to interrogate everyone in the corridor and stood leaned against the wall beside the stairs, furthest away from the elevators, when he got to watch how a rather large, grim-looking man in a brown hat and a coat with a large moustache exited the elevator, followed by normal-looking man with brown hair in a formal dark-grey-blue suit and a woman in white blouse, looking far more fierce and dangerous than the man. Recognising the stance of police officers Shinichi left them to do their work as he drew lines over names of people that had confirmed alibis. The man in a coat asked if anyone had entered the room as the younger man went to investigate the scene and a staff member pointed to the thief that was busy with retracing every step of his suspects as he'd already come to a conclusion of who the killer was and confirmed it quietly to himself.

"Excuse me," the police woman exclaimed in a firm voice after she'd walked up to him and made Shinichi close his notebook, "did you contaminate the crime scene?"  
"No, I didn't," the thief stated and gave her his attention, realising that he was in a lot of trouble since he had three identities on him, whereas two of those didn't exist and the third was an American that hadn't even entered the country, "I left everything as it was and used gloves. This is not my first time on a crime scene, and I have an alibi for the time of the murder, so you don't have to waste your time with investigating me while you confirm my conclusion. The name's Nozaki Shinichi, detective. It's a pleasure to meet you..."

"Satou-keiji," the woman continued and gave him a scrutinizing look as a middle-age coroner showed up and made his way into the room and the man in a coat joined the female officer, "and we don't need the help of teenagers."  
"I'm twenty-five," Shinichi claimed with a smile as he interrupted her, sending a polite bow to who he assumed to be the one with highest ranking among them.  
"My bad, you look very young, so tell me what you've deduced," Satou demanded, holding a notepad and Shinichi nodded, trying to look as professional and as honest as he could.

"The victim's wife, Azumi, left her ex-husband after he drove drunk and crashed, killing her only child Ayako, five years old, who was riding with him. There had been complications during her birth and made Azumi sterile. Her ex-husband, Kenji, was a butcher and he was devastated by what he'd done, so he cleaned up his life, but when Azumi left him he began stalking her. According to Azumi's sister they got a restraining order and then never saw him again, but what they didn't know was that he began following her new husband, Ichiro, who had two young children from a previous marriage. Both of them are here, and I told Ichiro's brother to guard them since I think that Kenji might try to kidnap them to get his ex-wife back. According to the medical history I found when I made a few calls both of Kenji's parents are mentally unstable, and he never told his wife that they were staying at an asylum. He told her that they were dead, so I think that we might be dealing with a slightly disturbed person since he was able to kill in such a manner without caring and then clean himself up. There's a bloody towel down in the cleaning room; I haven't touched it and I made sure that the staff wouldn't touch it either, and it is very possible that the murderer has scratches on his left arm, judging by the scratches on the victim's face so I think that it's very possible to get a DNA match, and there's a possibility that the murder weapon is down in the alley somewhere," Shinichi turned to the man in a hat, smiling, "the name is Nozaki Shinichi, a detective, and I have to assume that you work in the homicide department."

"That was a very impressive deduction, Nozaki-kun," the man stated with a small frown, "I'm Megure-keibu, and I wonder if you would consent to a body search."  
"Of course, anything to help," Shinichi smiled, hiding the fact that his heart sped up a bit, "but judging by the rigor mortis I'd say that the man was killed between three to three and a half hours ago, when I was in the restaurant and then later in one of the lounges, working on my computer. You can probably see me on the cameras."  
"And what if you are pretending to be a detective, but in reality are a hired professional that's here to dispose of evidence?" Megure questioned grumpily and made Shinichi pale as his smile died.  
"I see... I didn't think of that," the thief confessed and nodded as he grimaced a bit and held a hand to his stomach, hoping that he didn't look too guilty, "I'm sorry, my stomach has been acting up lately."

Megure turned around to the second officer that was speaking with the coroner and Shinichi saw how the younger man nodded and then pulled off his gloves, before he made his way towards the group, just as Satou was done with scribbling down the information and went to confirm it.  
"Takagi-kun," the inspector greeted as the man joined them and began describing things that Shinichi had already observed, while Megure studied the young thief, watching what could be a very promising detective in his eyes. Once the officer stopped explaining the scene and the conclusions he drew from it Shinichi opened his notebook and showed the inspector that it was exactly what he had observed, only in much more detail compared to the officer and with more conclusions, like the fact that it was personal, that it took a few minutes for the victim to die and that the knife had a long and thick blade.  
"You're either a good detective, or an accomplice," Megure stated, not feeling like asking for help unless he needed it, and he already had the Detective of the East that he could call if he needed help.

Shinichi was escorted into an unoccupied room by the officer Takagi and placed a small bag with disguises, two of his identities and a memory stick with the identities on, behind a flowerpot on a small round table while the man closed the door. The thief carefully dropped the bag with his laptop beside the table, in front of the flower so that he would have a reason to come back to it before he walked up to the officer to let the man do his job.

Takagi finished his search with a quick glance in Shinichi's wallet and then returned it before he walked up to his bag with the thief behind him. The officer opened the bag and emptied pens, scissors, a pair of sunglasses, night clothes, a toothbrush, toothpaste and transparent nail polish that Shinichi used to hide his fingerprints. As the man went through his bag Shinichi quickly gathered his things from behind the plant, seemingly simply leaning against the small table.

* * *

Convincing the police to continue the interrogations at the station was simpler than Shinichi had thought, especially after he told the man that he feared for the safety of the victim's children. In the car he complained over his stomach as he spoke with a man by the name of Isshin Chiba, a nerdy officer that loved TV series meant for children and collected figurines, but he was still open and friendly, and happily gave recommendations to restaurants and series he liked as he drove.

After getting to the police station Shinichi quickly excused himself and asked for directions to a restroom. Megure nodded and sent Takagi to keep an eye on the thief, but as soon as Shinichi got into a stall he took out his small bag with disguises and searched his face skin for an edge, but to his horror found none. Picking up his small mirror he stared at himself and then mentally slapped himself; he hadn't been wearing the disguise, so the officers had his real face on tape as he entered the station. His own face with the name he was supposed to have as a detective. While swearing quietly at himself for forgetting that he wasn't in disguise he donned a new face and turned his shirt outside in so that it had a dark grey colour instead of the light blue. Making his way out of the stall he saw that there was only a sleepy officer standing by the urinals, yawning as Shinichi left the restroom and passed Takagi that was leaning against the wall waiting for him.

The thief made his way a few doors down and found an open office area with lots of computers. Sitting down by one that was already started he quickly pushed the memory stick into it and watched the program break into the computer before it started downloading the identities while at the same time erasing every trace that an update had happened in the system. Taking up the identities he made a quick search for fingerprints matching his mother and watched Megure speak with the woman, Satou, at the far end of the room. Seeing that no match was found he contently made her safety identity and then continued with her identity of Nozaki Emiko, before he did the same to his father, worriedly checking the time on his watch, wondering how long it would take before Takagi went into the restroom to check on him, despite the fact that he told him not to come in and talk to him since it made him uneasy. Checking the identity of Nozaki Shinichi he quickly changed the picture from his safety identity to his identity, since that was what was seen on the cameras, but as he searched for the fingerprints of his own identity he flinched as a match was found and an identity was revealed on the computer.

Shinichi blinked as he read the name and stared at the picture, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. He searched again, but still came up with a 99% match to Kudou Shinichi. Staring at the picture he slowly started to accept the truth, since whenever you've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth, and Shinichi knew for a fact that there only was a 64 billion chance that his fingerprints would match another person's, which he would need at least nine more earths to even accomplish. The thief stared at the computer and his eyes moved over the lines as he read a story that he'd seen once before in a newspaper.

He had a hard time breathing as his entire world crumbled down around him; his parents had kidnapped him and never told him. Shinichi's eyes registered the words; 'Kidnappers caught' and he blinked as his brain took in the information. His parents had kidnapped him from kidnappers and didn't return him to his parents? Why had they never told him? Why did they do it?

Shaking his head Shinichi decided that he had more important things at hand and didn't have time to be freaking out in the middle of a police station. The thief printed the pages and saw how a large printer came to life by the door that he'd come in through and he quickly erased his safety identity, since he now only had one option; not getting caught.

In a daze Shinichi took the papers from the machine and made his way back to the restroom, seeing Takagi send a glance to his watch. The thief walked into a stall and locked the door as he pulled up his wallet and took out the money and ID. He carefully shredded the ID with a small knife that he got by pressing the buttons on his watch in a certain order and then dropped the pieces into the toilet and flushed them away as he closed the lid. He stuffed his disguise back in his small bag after he'd taken out his new fingerprints and carefully put them on. The thief folded the rapport of Kudou Shinichi and hid it in his shoes before he placed his wallet in the water tank; he would have to pretend that it had been stolen on the way to the police station.

Takagi opened the door just as Shinichi came out of his stall and walked over to the sink to make sure that the plastic fingertips were sitting in a good way.  
"Ready to go back?" Takagi asked with a smile, but Shinichi barely heard him; he was too concentrated on the horrid feeling that was filling his entire body. A feeling that made his head completely blank as his chest felt heavy and at the same time made his stomach churn in an unpleasant way.  
"Yea, sure," Shinichi whispered and gave himself a blank stare in the mirror, quietly following behind the officer back to the waiting room, knowing that he couldn't freak out yet, so he had to stay calm for now, and he really needed to speak with his parents, or kidnappers...

* * *

A/N: I just discovered that Chiba doesn't actually have a name in DC...


	17. Fragile Memories

A/N; Sorry that I'm sometimes writing 'Of Fire And Water' instead of 'Twisted Path' when I answer to reviews. I'm tired and confused from time to time... ^^'' or is that always?

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 17  
Uploaded: 2013-01-22  
Chapter rating: T  
Words: 3,200

* * *

**Chap. 17  
Fragile Memories**

Megure patted the young-looking detective on his shoulder as they waited for a cab, quietly asking if something was wrong as the young man was staring straight forward with a blank expression, and only received an answer that something had happened in his family that needed immediate attention. The inspector had smiled as he'd given the young man a check, which seemed to surprise him positively, before he snapped out of the daze he'd been in and bowed as he thanked him. Megure had smiled as he left the detective with a last glance and a thought that he recognized him from somewhere, but he couldn't quite pinpoint from where. He got inside and suddenly watched his friend come down in one of the elevators.

"Kudou!" Megure smiled as the detective walked up to him with a delighted grin, "I had no idea that you were here!"  
"I just helped Nakamori decipher one of Kaitou KID's heist notes; he's making them harder and harder," the author and detective grinned, making the inspector chuckle.  
"Just how you like them, old friend," Megure commented and Yuusaku laughed, completely agreeing with the man.  
"But I am quite certain that he would drop by to tell us if we ever were unsuccessful. He wouldn't want to be bored at a heist, now woul-" Yuusaku stopped short and his smile disappeared as he saw a young man around the age of what his son would be get into a cab; the spitting image of his son. Setting off in a spurt he left Megure to call his name after him before he too followed. Yuusaku got outside just as the vehicle drove off and he stopped at the steps of the station.

"Do you know who that was?" the detective inquired as the inspector joined him, looking after the cab that was disappearing.  
"If I have to venture a guess I'd say that the one you ran after was Nozaki Shinichi," Megure informed his friend and saw his eyes narrow.  
"Shinichi..."  
"It's not your son," the inspector stated quietly and placed a hand on the man's shoulder, making him close his eyes with a sigh.  
"I know, I just could've sworn... He looked just like I imagined Shinichi would look like once he grew up. His body haven't been found and I just hope that he's alive, and that he one day will come home. What did Nozaki-kun do here?"  
"He's a very promising detective that helped solve a crime that was committed at a hotel. He looks young, but he's in his mid-twenties if I remember correctly," Megure stated and released his friend as they turned around to go inside.  
"What kind of crime?"  
"Murder,"  
"Meaning that he left his fingerprints," Yuusaku stated and sent his friend a gaze, causing the inspector to sigh.  
"Obsessing over your dead son won't bring him back, Yuusaku. You need to let him go," Megure commented, but still brought the detective to see the fingerprints of Nozaki Shinichi to convince the man that it really wasn't his son.

* * *

Shinichi caressed the sheets of paper between his fingers after he'd gotten into a cab and told the man the address he wanted to go to. He read the file that he'd printed out in a tiny font size so that it would only be a few pages and memorized the text. In the newspaper there had only been a little information, so now he got a lot.

Kudou Shinichi had been kidnapped from a shopping mall, _that_ he already knew, but what he hadn't known was that it was after he'd ran up to the bookshop, according to the security cameras, and as he continued reading his head pounded and he got flashes of memories.

_He placed his hands against the window of the bookshop and smiled into it as he observed the people inside._

Turning the watch on his arm he picked up the protective glass and held it over the crime scene photos, studying the place where he'd been held with the magnifying glass.

"_... Sold you," a memory whispered as he watched the kitchen in the underground storage, "sold you to us... New parents...Always love you, like you were our own." _

Shinichi started to sweat as he read the file, wanting to find the place where it said that the kidnappers had lied to him, but as he read, reread and reread it again he was unable to find it; why wasn't it in the file? Was it because it was true and his parents had kept quiet about it? To get his life insurance? He'd seen plenty of those cases in America, whereas they were a bit less common in England.

The thief closed his eyes and took a breath, trying to remember, but as he did her got flashes of kind smiles from his kidnappers, comforting him and playing with him, trying to get him to forget his 'old parents'. The more he remembered the longer it seemed as if he'd been there. According to the file the kidnappers had only had him just over a week, but from his memories it could've been a month.

_Cold steel against his feet made him wake up slightly, but as he turned on the shower he got drenched in cold water and jumped back. A slicing pain from his shoulder made him stare at the bleeding wound before he saw the knife in the man's hand. He ran._

Shinichi shook his head; neither his memories nor the case file made any sense. His memories were incomplete, he knew that, but why didn't it say in the file that he'd been sold? Maybe they hadn't known of the lie, then why hadn't he been allowed to speak with his father?  
The file said that there had been a call, and that Yuusaku had demanded to hear his son's voice, but then there was no more mentioning of it. The file didn't say if he'd gotten a confirmation that it was his son. It didn't say that the kidnapper refused him either; it said even less than nothing. It was blank and the file moved on to the next topic, describing how Yuusaku found the hideout, and how he found the kidnappers, but not his son.

_Cold. It was so cold, and he was shivering from it as he sat with his back towards a wall, somewhere in an alley in the dark night. Desperate to get warm he climbed into a dumpster and hid among the waste. _

Shinichi shook the memory out of his head, remembering crawling closer to warm fur in a hole in the ground. He kept reading the small text and got to a few days later where Yuusaku theorised that the kidnappers might have contacted their friend to have the body burned, since they'd confessed to doing just that to several other children, and then handed the man to the police for a lighter sentence, but the only thing they got was that the death sentence was taken off the table, while they handed the location of a body to the police every second year.

Sixteen months after being missing and believed dead there had been a murder. As the forensic team dusted off the place for fingerprints and then scanned them into the computer Shinichi showed up again and Yuusaku was called out to the scene. The author immediately pointed out that it had been the son of Chie, but as they found the car that belonged to the woman's son and wife, they were dead. The money was gone and the author-now-detective chased down a junky not far from the scene, but there was where the new trail ended, and after that there was no mentioning of Kudou Shinichi ever again. Shinichi had been declared dead in absentia after being missing for a year and the thief stared down on the paper in his hand, wanting it to tell him if his real parents had been fighting the court statement or if they had been eager to have him gone.

He looked out the window, wondering and worrying with confusion stirring in his head. Satoru had green eyes and the same kind of shape on his head as Shinichi, so he'd assumed that his own blue eyes had come from his father's genes, and his mother was Japanese, so he'd just assumed that they were his parents; why would he think otherwise? His father had discarded his real name, Simon Young, and just called himself Satoru, since there was no need for a whole name as long as they constantly had other identities, and it was the name he'd carried when his parents had tried to con each other, but then ended up falling in love once the truth came out and after they'd been working together. Not even Avaron had a family name since both of them had been rejected by their relatives for what they were doing, but Shinichi had met his 'grandmother', an old woman from Satoru's family that didn't care about what he was doing, and the only one that knew that Simon Young was still alive.

Still deep in thought he paid the driver and got out in front of a large apartment complex reaching high into the sky with balconies by each door, and as he walked through the gates he saw that the buildings surrounded a playground where children were playing with each other. He leaned against the gates for a while, not wanting to meet his parents yet, and sighed heavily. How should he react?  
He wanted to throw a fit, or did he? Shinichi shook his head and quietly walked up the steps to the building before he used his code to get inside. What if he just ran away right now? But he needed the truth. The ride with the elevator was long, but yet too short as he got to a floor near the roof.

The young thief picked the lock on the door, just as fast as if he'd had a key and then pushed it open, seeing a cosy home with a few travelling cases on the floor belonging to his parents, but no one was inside to greet him. His new home was consisting of a rather large, joined kitchen and living room with a small hallway and three doors to his right. Shinichi walked inside and cautiously closed the door as to not make any noise; how should he play it? Pretend like he didn't know anything and carefully coax information out of them? Or simply ask them straight to their faces?

The door to the bathroom suddenly opened and Satoru showed up with a yawn, and then smiled at his son as he discovered that he was there.  
"Took you long enough," he grinned, but then realised that something was wrong as Shinichi was staring at him with disbelief, wondering if his 'father' was just a kidnapper, "hey, what's wrong? Did something happen?"  
"Ah, there was a murder," the teenager answered slowly, still looking at his father, trying to piece together the fact that he'd never considered the man to be so cold-hearted as to steal a child from a loving family.  
"Just a murder?" Satoru questioned and narrowed his eyes slightly before he took a step towards his son, who immediately slammed his back into the door, trying to get away from him, "I don't believe you. What kind of murder affects you this badly?"

"Who am I?" Shinichi questioned and the elder thief raised his eyebrows, "who's mom? I know that you're Simon Young, but who's Avaron?"  
"Ooh, our given names?" the man smiled, hiding his concern over his son's strange behaviour, "Avaron's name is Sayuri Ayugai, but don't tell her that I told you," Satoru winked and Shinichi nodded," she doesn't like her family or her name."  
"And what about me?" he demanded to know.  
"You're Shinichi."  
"Shinichi, who?"  
"Just Shinichi. I've never known anything more than that," Satoru answered with a bright smile, observing his son's every move and saw that his son was giving him the same treatment, letting him know that something was going on, and judging by the questions he had a fairly good guess.

"So after you _kidnapped_ me you never bothered finding out _who_ I belonged to?!" Shinichi asked harshly and made himself prepared to run, or attack; he wasn't certain of which.  
"Kidnapped?" Satoru asked in shock, "you were kidnapped?" Shinichi blinked at his question and relaxed slightly, seeing no deception from his father, but the man could be faking it.  
"According to the police records I was," the teenager informed and took a grip into the door handle, knowing that 'his father' would never be able to outrun him if he gave the wrong answer.  
"Okay, why don't I tell you our story?" Satoru asked and took a step back, showing that he wasn't going to do anything to stop his son if he ran away, "you're big on the truth, at least that's what you always said. Were you lying?" Shinichi narrowed his eyes at the man's back as Satoru walked up to the kitchen table and sat down beside it.

"I guess that you've found out that you're adopted. We didn't bother with finding out what your family name was because you didn't want to tell us, and we didn't want to have any connection to someone like them. You didn't even want to mention your first family," Satoru explained as Shinichi joined him by the table.  
"First?" he wondered quietly.  
"Yes, you told us that you were sold, and I guess that your original family could've told the police that you were kidnapped, even though that's a bit stupid. If it was I, I'd just reported you as missing, unless I could gain something from my family or neighbours by making a fuss about it, but back to our story. We found you all bruised up, dying, and you believed that everyone wanted to kill you. You had been living in the streets after you escaped from your second family, which to my understanding was either abusing you or simply wanted you dead. You found your way to someone you called Chie-obaasan, and lived with her until she was murdered. You fled, and then Avaron and I found you. After hearing that you were sold we decided to keep you, and give you a real family," Satoru reached out his hand over the table and Shinichi stared at it before he took it, accepting the man's words as true.

"Your story coincides better with what I remember compared to the police rapport," Shinichi stated solemnly, "but I still can't believe that he would do such a thing!" The young thief took back his hand and ran it through his hair as he glared at the table in front of him. "I remember far from everything, but I guess that it makes sense... He's so good at what he does... So the only explanation as to why he didn't find me with the kidnappers was because it was all orchestrated by him," Shinichi sighed deeply, thinking of the advanced crimes in the books that Yuusaku had written; cooking up something that looked like an ordinary kidnapping would be so simple that he could do it in his sleep, even without the kidnappers knowing that they were being led to their capture. The thief scowled and suddenly felt how he was pulled from his seat and into his father's lap as the man gave him a warming hug.

"Shinichi," Satoru whispered and worriedly felt how the teenager wasn't complaining about the hug, "he's not your father_, I am_. We might not be related by blood, but that doesn't make you any less of _my_ son. Both Avaron and I love you very much and we always have. And just out of curiosity, what is your real name?"  
"Kudou," the teenager whispered quietly and Satoru narrowed his eyes, knowing that he'd heard that name somewhere.  
"Kudou? As in Kudou Shinichi, that author's missing son?"  
"Exactly, Yuusaku. The creator of the Night Baron series is apparently the father of the thief Night Baron; a son that he sold to a family without caring what happened to him afterwards. The file that I printed doesn't even tell if the kidnappers refused to let him hear his son's voice and _every file_ that I've _ever_ read that had something to do with kidnappings always, _always_, had that the child was confirmed to be alive or that the kidnappers refused, and he wouldn't do that kind of miss! And if he did that kind of miss someone else would've noticed it!"

Satoru continued holding his son as the teenager muttered to himself, and he heard Shinichi grumble something about wanting to be exactly like Yuusaku; a great detective, but now he was nothing but crap in the teenager's eyes.  
"I'm home!" a voice sang from the door and Avaron stopped with an eyebrow raised as she saw that their son was sitting in her husband's lap.  
"Avaron," Satoru smiled at the woman and caressed his son comforting, "I'm afraid that Shinichi found out that we're not his parents, but it was only a matter of time since we got to Japan."  
"Oh? And he decided to hug you?" the woman smiled as she started to place the groceries in the fridge, happy that their son hadn't freaked out, "and he's okay with it?"  
"Yea," the man answered slowly, "let's just say that if the irony doesn't kill you I don't know what will."  
"Huh?" the woman raised an eyebrow as she placed the take-away food in the microwave oven, "what do you mean?"

"Well, Shinichi here, is the missing son of Yuusaku, the author of the Night Baron series," Satoru sent his wife a slanted smile, trying to not be amused by how the world worked, "so Shinichi took up his biological father's character." Avaron blinked as she thought the entire thing over and then frowned.  
"But why would he sell his son? By what I've seen of him he's very kind and careful," she remarked with a frown.  
"According to the police rapport I was kidnapped, but the file is beneath contempt, and the flaws makes me think that it's not actually true," the young thief informed her as he listened to his father's heartbeat, automatically keeping time to see if he was lying, "it's too deliberate."  
"No, how awful!" she stated upset and walked over to her family, hugging them from behind and stroke her son's back, "what a horrible man."

"And another thing," Shinichi sighed, "I messed up at the police station so we have to take new family photos. I couldn't input my safety identity due to the fact that I forgot to put on my 'Nozaki' mask, so I just changed the photos in the file, and also because I'd have to erase Kudou Shinichi in order to have one and with someone as good as Yuusaku around he'd notice and come after me, putting you two in danger."  
"We'll do that first thing tomorrow morning, and then fix the photos of us when you were a child," Avaron kissed her son on the top of his head and turned on the TV, but regretted it as Shinichi jolted his head towards it, hearing it announce that Kaitou KID was holding a heist the very next day.

* * *

A/N: I have begun working on a timeline so that I won't mess stuff up! But it's only for a couple of chapters, before it gets confusing... he he he


	18. New Acquaintances

A/N: So I'm getting more ideas for this story; which is great, but I'm still struggling with the timeline since there seems to be a hole in it. I'm not certain how I'm going to have KID and Night Baron fall in love without drawing it out too much or going too fast. I don't want them to meet once and fall head over heels in love.

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 17  
Uploaded: 2013-03-23  
Chapter rating: T  
Words: 3,300

* * *

**Chap. 18  
New Acquaintances **

Shinichi watched from the roof of the building opposite to the heist location, waiting in the shadows for the show to begin. He knew from the recordings of the other thief's heists that KID enjoyed putting on a show just as much as Shinichi did; the only difference was that KID had traps involving glitter, feathers and glue, but he would from time to time appear to perform for his fans, like the midair walk and the teleportation trick.

Through a binocular, Shinichi saw how smoke filled the room where the Kaitou KID taskforce were guarding a large diamond and as soon as it cleared Kaitou KID was standing atop the display case in his white outfit, throwing the diamond into the air once before he caught it and secured it inside his inner pocket, smirking confidently and said a few well-chosen words that made the head of the taskforce grit his teeth and roar something to his men. The officers launched forward and Shinichi caught a glimpse of a familiar teenage detective with blonde hair just before Hakuba left the room.

He watched the other thief avoid the officers for a while, strangely enough playing with them. KID obviously didn't take them seriously, but Shinichi could somewhat understand that; it had been a long time since he met an officer that could match his intelligence, but they still brought criminals to justice and that deserved respect, most of the time. The teenager had decided to not make contact that night so he had simply used the same outfit as his father did whenever he was unlucky in his cons and went stealing. Shinichi, in slightly too large clothes and with a dark grey scarf, jumped from building to building until he got to the end of the crowd of KID-fans that were roaring as they watched the flashes of light in the hope that they would catch a glimpse of their idol. He carefully judged the distance between the building where he was supposed to cross over to the right side, and after making sure that no helicopter was about to come near him he shot the grappling hook to a flagpole on top of the roof on the other side and headed for the correct building.

Shinichi took a second to feel the air on his face before he searched the roof of the heist building; the wind was perfect for flight, so KID would definitely fly away. The teenager crouched down behind a rather large and old air vent, matching the old roof that only was about ten floors high, and then waited, hoping that KID would go to the roof to fly away and not just jump out a window.

He waited for a long while, and even the crowd of people began to lessen without having caught sight of their hero. A few taskforce members took a quick look around the roof before they headed inside again, but before they went Shinichi heard his old friend's voice through their radios, telling them that KID was there somewhere; he'd made sure of it, so Shinichi kept waiting. He held his body warm as he stretched his muscles in the early summer night, happily watching the dark clouds obscure the stars and the moon, making him even more concealed.

Just as Shinichi was yawning and had gotten bored beyond reason he heard the steps of someone running, causing him to immediately hide in the darkness behind the air vent. The thief pulled up a small mirror that he placed on the roof so that he could see who it was that was approaching, and the door slammed open and revealed Kaitou KID that crouched down almost before he'd even gotten out. The thief in white did something to his monocle and looked around the surrounding rooftops, relaxed and then stood up. He glared up at the clouds, unaware that Shinichi was studying him, confirming his suspicion that it wasn't Kuroba Toichi, which Whisky seemed to be sure of. This new Kaitou KID was too young to have been alive when the first KID appeared. Shinichi studied the other thief's face as he held the diamond in his hand and studied the sky, or studied as much of it as he could see, but Shinichi could tell that he was young; in his thirties? In his twenties? Or even younger? For all Shinichi knew, Kaitou KID could be around his own age, which was young for such a professional thief, but it could be a mask even though it wouldn't make sense; why would Kuroba Toichi pretend to be a teenage boy, or a young man, when the entire world believed him to be middle age?

The white-clad thief stared at the sky with a slightly irritated scowl on his face, spinning around as he searched the sky for something.  
"Clear," KID muttered in a young man's voice and Shinichi became certain that the other thief was younger than what everyone thought, "it was supposed to be clear tonight. Northern winds... Can't be trusted... I guess you're coming home with me tonight..." The magician sighed and stared at the jewel he'd just stolen while Shinichi moved in the shadows behind him, placing himself by the fire escape and sat down on the small wall.

"Some people talk to themselves to create a sense of another person's presence," Shinichi began in a light voice, speaking in the Japanese with an American accent that he'd chosen for Night Baron and tried to sound as nonthreatening as possible as he watched the other thief tense and turn around to face him, "to counteract the fact that they feel lonely, but most do it to vent feelings of frustration, but as long as no bodiless voice answers you back you're psychologically fine. What is it that troubles you, KID-san?" Shinichi tilted his head and studied KID that was looking as if he'd known that the stranger had been sitting there on that ledge the whole time, but as it seemed like the white-clad thief wasn't about to answer Shinichi continued, "can I ask you a question?"

"I don't see why not," KID responded with a pleasant smile, in a voice that was darker than the one he'd used before, and Shinichi noted that the other teenager placed himself in a way so that he could run away quickly or avoid something if the stranger on the roof was dangerous. Shinichi crossed his arms in front of his chest, showing a position that seemed to be at a disadvantage if he was attacked.  
"It's been bothering me for a while now... Why do you return?" Shinichi wondered curiously and seemed to catch the other thief off guard.  
"Why do I return?" KID repeated and smiled a bit, "of course. 'Why do I return?'. Usually the question goes 'why do you steal?' since returning my spoils afterwards makes stealing redundant, but you're question implies that you're not a detective, or even law-abiding, also confirmed by your outfit, which is loose, so that your body shape won't be easily recognised. Not black, but a very dark colour, maybe grey or blue, so that you easier blend into the shadows. Young, going by your voice. A fellow thief I presume since you don't reek of murder. But you are quite good to come here when the place is crawling with officers, so are you brave, or simply reckless?"

"Pfft, if you can outrun them, so can I!" Shinichi laughed and tried to play himself as a young and not-so-clever delinquent.  
"Reckless, it is," KID smiled.  
"You can steal anything, so why do you return?"  
"Gold and jewels are not the source of happiness. To me, all they are, are pretty colours and transparent rocks. Sure they might sometimes be breathtakingly beautiful, but they are still not _that _valuable in my eyes, and I can't understand why people think so highly of them," the thief in a white suit said gracefully with all the air of a gentleman, and Shinichi could understand why this peculiar thief had so many fans.  
"Wow, you certainly are something else," the dark-clad thief grinned and threw his arms behind his neck, wondering how the thief would react to what he was about to do next. In the blink of an eye Shinichi pushed himself over the edge, seeing KID's eyes widen in panic before the ledge obscured him, and he was forced to concentrate on his descent.

Shinichi took a firm grip into the railing of the fire escape a few floors down, causing his body to propel around and become aligned with his feet towards the ground as he hit the grid floor with his soles. He let go of the metal bar and fell a couple of metres before he took a new grip into the railing to stop the increase in speed before he let go and repeated the action all the way to the ground. As he looked up from the ground he could see his new acquaintance look over the edge, most likely baffled by what he'd done.

The teenager grinned as he ran out of the alley, sending the thief a cheery wave and felt KID's watchful eyes on him. Shinichi caught sight of an expensive bag in the hands of a beautiful young lady with blonde-dyed hair and went for it.  
"My handbag! Thief!" the young lady in the company of a brunette and a younger girl with black hair screeched, "stop him!" Shinichi saw that a few of the hardcore KID-fans that were still hanging around the scene to socialise reacted at the same time as the blonde's friends, but they were too slow compared to Shinichi to be able to help. A shadow on the ground acted as a warning of what was about to happen, and just as a smoke bomb exploded Shinichi jumped to his right, feeling how he collided with someone. Before his mind registered silk his hand was already holding the hard jewel and he released the bag as he ran out of the smoke, laughing as he saw an annoyed Kaitou KID glaring at him.

"I _knew_ that you couldn't resist that!" Shinichi laughed and backed away.  
"KID-sama!" the blonde woman squealed together with the rest of the female fans while everything stopped for a moment.  
"You're good enough to move around undetected on a location full of police officers, and you steal an innocent woman's purse. You have my attention; what do you _really_ want?" KID asked and watched Shinichi do a deep stage bow.  
"I wanted to see the true honour of thieves," he answered with eyes full of mirth as he looked up.  
"Thieves have no honour,"  
"There's a special kind of thief that do; they are called gentleman thieves, and I am merely a pickpocket, so I do not belong to that category. It has been an enlightening and fascinating meeting, thank you, KID-san," Shinichi spun around on his foot and ran into the next alley, smirking at the fact that KID hadn't noticed the theft yet.

KID glared at the vanishing pickpocket, feeling that something was off about him. Just as he threw the bag back to the young woman he felt his suit tighten by the movement and his heart almost stopped at the fact that the inner pocket was missing something hard that was supposed to rest against his chest above his heart.  
"Excuse me, young miss," KID said and then dropped a smoke bomb to cover up the fact that he ran into the alley after the pickpocket.

The gentleman thief caught up to him just as Shinichi dropped down on the other side of a large fence that now separated them, but KID didn't spare it any thought before he pulled out his grappling hook and shot it up to the top and got over that way.

Shinichi ran with the other thief behind him, trying the other's abilities by moving out, in, over and through buildings, sewers, fences and construction sites. KID tried nailing him to the wall with his sharpened cards, but he only managed to make a small rip in the other thief's clothes. After a long while of running Shinichi was growing tired of avoiding all of the ambushes the other thief made, and so was KID if he judged by his severely slowed down speed. Shinichi could only assume that KID was probably beyond his limit, as he himself was beginning to feel tired, and Shinichi had been running around his entire life. Deciding that he needed to end it before he was caught he slowed down his pace and used more restricted movements and no unnecessarily showy ways of getting from one point to the other. Slowly he regained his breath and then found himself waiting on the roof of the building to where he lived, knowing that KID was on his way and pretended to try and catch his breath.

As a white glider landed behind him Shinichi twitched and gasped in fake shock before he jumped over the edge and slipped into the balcony of his home. With a bit of satisfaction he picked the lock before his hand had even reached the handle. He slipped inside, seeing his parents smile at him from their place on the couch and heard that they were watching some action movie, judging by the shots fired.  
"Kiss, or something!" Shinichi whispered quickly and made both his parents stare at him baffled as he hid inside a newly bought wardrobe that was supposed to hold their jackets, shoes and other outdoor clothes, but that for the moment was empty.

Avaron's confusion immediately vanished as she saw a white flutter on the balcony and pulled down her husband to her lips. Satoru did as he was told and played along, even though he had no idea of what was going on, but as Kaitou KID barged in he found himself interrupting what appeared to be a loving couple. Satoru blinked and restrained his laugher as he found a blushing Kaitou KID staring at them frozen.  
"It was unlocked," the thief defended himself and pointed to the door, making Avaron laugh.  
"This is a skyscraper, KID-san," she giggled in fluent Japanese, "we don't get many burglars thought the balcony."  
"I suppose not," the gentleman thief said as he backed away with a blush covering his face, "no one came in through your balcony then?"  
"No, why would they?" Avaron wondered and Satoru raised his eyebrows.  
"Then I'm terribly sorry for intruding," KID excused and then vanished out to the balcony and jumped down to the next floor, knowing that the pickpocket had disappeared somewhere around there.

Shinichi laughed inside the wardrobe and got rid of his incriminating clothes, leaving himself in a simple T-shirt and a thin pair of pants, before he left his hideout.  
"Did you see his face?" the teenager grinned as he stepped out of his hideout, chuckling amused at what he'd seen through the small crack that he had made when he held the door slightly ajar.  
"You didn't manage to lose him?" Satoru asked curiously, "is he actually that good?"  
"I wasn't supposed to meet him, but I took the opportunity when I saw it, and I stole the diamond. I don't think that he was even expecting me to try that, but he was hard to get rid of."  
"But you didn't get rid of him," Satoru pointed out again, "you brought him home."  
"Yea, but he'll think that I went into this balcony, but then left on the other side, which is obscured by the balconies above, and if he judges by what kind of tricks that I've used to get here he'd assume that that's what I did, so it's okay. I have to make a call now," Shinichi smiled and went into his sparsely furnished room, containing a bed, a few photos, a wardrobe, a bookcase and an empty sideboard beside his bed, but he was supposed to go shopping and decorate his room the next day, to make it more personal.

"Chivas Regal," Shinichi said as he heard a click in the phone.  
"Yes, LeBaron?"  
"I've got the diamond Kaitou KID stole earlier tonight, should I come by to drop it off with you?" the teenage thief questioned, hoping that he'd find out where the division boss' hideout was.  
"Oh?" the man sounded genuinely surprised, "I didn't think that you'd get to Japan until tomorrow."  
"I got here early," Shinichi confessed, not wanting to tell the man that he'd been there for a while now, "and I decided to check out the heist."  
"Do whatever you want with it; we've already checked that one."  
"Then I'll return it," Shinichi smiled.  
"Really? Why?" Whisky wondered curiously.  
"Thieves' honour," the teenager smirked and made the man laugh amused, or maybe it was demeaning.  
"One day, LeBaron, one day I might understand what goes on inside your head."  
"Returning it is a direct challenge to Kaitou KID."  
"I see, getting bored, are we? Well then, have fun, and don't forget to look into that Sherry-business we discussed last time. Gin wants to know if you can find any trace of her," Whisky finished the call and hung up, and as soon as Shinichi took it away from his ear he disassembled it and threw it in his basket, wondering how he should return the diamond; flashy? Showing up as Night Baron and dropping it off in the middle of the station? Or just sit in Nakamori's office chair when he got there in the morning? Or should he be a bit more mysterious?

* * *

Saguru had stayed behind at the police station to finish the last of a police rapport concerning a murder that he'd solved a few days ago when Nakamori showed up demanding his help and brought him into the middle of the office of the 2:d division where a black package with white ribbons stood.  
"No one saw anything and it just appeared from out of nowhere," Nakamori informed gruffly, restraining his wish to smash it into pieces, "the video shows the same thing, but we don't think that it's from KID, even though it has a riddle; it's not KID's handwriting."  
"Okay," Saguru mumbled and opened the small card that was used as a tag. As he saw the writing he wouldn't help but to feel a tug in his lips.

"Can you decipher it? The dogs didn't mark it as a bomb either, but does it say if the package is safe to open? I'd hate to be forced to clean paint off the walls if it's booby trapped."  
"It's most likely safe," the British detective confirmed and opened the white decoration while the rest of the taskforce kept as far away as possible, thinking that it might explode; some policemen were even starring at the gift through the narrow slit to the restroom. After he took the lid off of the package he pulled up the jewel that had been stolen earlier that day and smiled.

"Nakamori-keibu, our workload just doubled; a new thief is in town, an old acquaintance of mine," Saguru handed the jewel to the tired man and grasped the ribbon with the tag on, and continued in a whisper, "so we meet again... But this must mean that KID lost the diamond to you somehow..."  
"Huh?" Nakamori grunted and looked to the detective for an explanation for his muttering, "what are you talking about?"  
"Nakamori-keibu, I suggest that you try to keep this out of the news for as long as you can, or at least until you have the diamond authenticated."  
"Why? KID doesn't exchange his loot; he returns it as he takes it."  
"Maybe so, but this isn't from KID; it's from Night Baron, and _he_ isn't known for returning anything, so this is quite possibly a onetime thing that he did to honour KID's name, since KID was the one who stole it in the first place, but it must be a bit insulting too, kind of like when a child shows off his toy exclaiming 'look what I've got!'."


	19. Knowing Your Enemy

A/N: Hmm... It seems to become much longer than what I originally thought that it would be ^^'

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 17  
Uploaded: 2013-04-01  
Chapter rating: K  
Words: 3,800

* * *

**Chap. 19  
Knowing Your Enemy**

The thief in white took off his outfit in a puff of smoke, turning back to the teenager known as Kuroba Kaito, and sighed as he leaned on the mirrored cupboards in the hideout of his home. He wanted nothing else but to tear his hair, yell and throw a fit, but that would serve no purpose other than to mess up the hidden room, and he certainly had no desire to clean. He couldn't believe that he'd lost a priceless jewel. He, as Kaitou KID, had lost an item, and had thereby tainted his late father's name, and just the fact that he lost it to a pickpocket and purse-snatching thief was just the perfect icing on the cake; a horrible, not-so-delicious cake, probably filled with fish or something equally disgusting.

Kaito had waited outside of the apartment complex after he'd lost track of the other thief, considering the possibility that the man he'd seen with the woman was the pickpocket; she could've been his accomplice, but as Kaito returned to the scene and watched the couple with a son for a while he heard the man speak. He had no accent and his voice was deeper than the voice of the person he'd meet, so he was back to his first assumption; the pickpocket had only crossed over to the other side of the balcony and made it down, and after Kaito entered the room, the other could've gone inside the room below, taken off his disguise in the stairwell of the building or simply gone up to the roof again and made his way from there.

* * *

Kaito was antsy and irritated as his mind flew to places and consequences that could arise as he walked to school the next Monday; if the organization that killed his father heard that Kaitou KID had kept a jewel they would double their efforts in finding him, they might even threaten to kill people, and since he had no diamond to present them with they would assume that KID was refusing to give it up. The seventeen-year-old magician mumbled to himself as he walked into the school grounds, and anyone that saw his irritated frown took a detour around him; they had no way of telling if the troublemaker was thinking out a new prank to pull or if he simply had a lot on his mind, but they would take no chances. As Kaito made his way to his seat he realised that he would have to answer to his fans and to Nakamori, but before he did that he needed to find the diamond fast so that the organization didn't make a move.

Someone sat down beside him and Kaito sent them a questioning look, wondering who dared to approach him when he was in a brooding mood; it was like asking 'could you pretty please prank me?' But as the magician caught sight of Hakuba Saguru he just sighed and turned away; that detective was the only person in the class that had no sense of danger, or he just didn't care. Trying the 'ignore-Hakuba' technique apparently didn't work as the detective now sat beside him through the entire first lesson.

"What do you want?" Kaito asked with a light smile that shone dangerously as the bell rang and Hakuba seemed to hold back an amused smile as before he answered.  
"Did you know that Kaitou KID lost the diamond during his last heist?" the detective wondered nonchalantly in a quiet voice and kept that same laughing smile on his lips.  
"You mean that he dropped it somewhere at the heist?" Kaito gaped in a slightly over-exaggerated shock; had he actually dropped it on the roof? He hadn't even considered that possibility, "but what if he left it just to return it?"  
"Are you even aware to whom you lost it?" Hakuba's smirk began showing a bit of his white teeth and Kaito grew even more annoyed.  
"I'm not KID," he defended himself, "so I can't possibly know what happened inside the heist building. Did he lose it to you?" the magician asked, knowing that that wasn't the case, since the Brit had been glued to the ceiling while KID was walking around disguised as him, so that he could get the taskforce into his traps.  
"No, I was otherwise occupied..." the detective confessed and picked up a book from his satchel before he began reading it, leaving Kaito staring at him.

"Okay, you want me to ask. How can you possibly know that KID lost a diamond if he didn't lose it at the heist, I mean, he's been known to keep the jewels for a few days after the heists sometimes," Kaito gave in and made the blonde smile again.  
"Another thief returned it," Hakuba shrugged as he changed page in the book and then decided to lie, "no one but me realised that, and I intend to keep it that way."  
"What? But I've never heard of another thief that returns his loot!" the magician exclaimed and remembered the pickpocket; he didn't seem like one that would do such a thing, but then again, he had been talking about ''Thieves' Honour'', so maybe...  
"Yea, well, I think this was a challenge to KID."  
"Really? How do you know?"  
"Why would I tell you?"  
"Because I'm _adorable_ and KID's biggest fan."  
"No..."  
"Come on! Just tell me! It's not like it's a secret, right?"  
"No, it's a secret, but I still won't say any more."  
"Okay, bargain with me! I'll give you a week without any pranks!" Kaito tried, making the detective look up at him with a raised eyebrow.  
"Bargain? With you? About being pranked?" Hakuba wondered baffled, never having heard anything like that from the thief.  
"Yes, of course, how do you think that others gets around here? I mean, I'm not totally unreasonable..." Kaito shrugged innocently.  
"Four weeks," Hakuba tried and closed his book.  
"_What?!_ Are you trying to kill me?" the thief gasped, visibly shocked, but the Brit knew that it was all an act, "I'll agree to a maximum of two weeks!"  
"Okay, five weeks," the detective smirked as he took up his pocket watch, making Kaito blink.  
"Hey, that's not the way you bargain! You say something high and I say something low and we'll meet in the middle," the dark haired teenager informed.  
"Then I'll say; six weeks," Hakuba smiled and showed no consideration to the rules of negotiating, "aren't you curious about what the thief's name is? He is a bit famous, so you don't have to feel too bad for losing the diamond to him, and he will most likely show up again."  
"I'm not KID," the words spilled out of Kaito's mouth on a reflex, "okay, fine! Stop! You're ruthless, so I'll sell you six prank-free weeks for the information, but if you are lying, prepare yourself for six weeks of hell."

"The thief's name is Night Baron. He left it in the middle of the police station, no one saw a thing, and the cameras didn't see any kind of stranger there. Yesterday I was watching the recordings of every camera, but no one was out of place, and most of the officers could point out that they were actually there at that time," Hakuba smirked and saw how the thief began to think about it.  
"What is he doing in Japan? I thought that he only kept to the west..."  
"No, not only there, but Night Baron left a note too," Hakuba stated and studied the magician, wondering if there was going to be a competition about who was the best phantom thief, and if one of them would get caught because of that, or maybe both would get caught trying to outdo the other.  
"What did it say?"  
"Five weeks," the detective immediately tested, hoping that he could draw more safe-weeks.  
"Not a chance in hell," Kaito stated with a scowl.  
"For five more weeks you get the note and my interpretation of it," Hakuba bargained, seeing the thief's eyes narrow.  
"Four weeks,"  
"Six,"  
"Fine," Kaito said harshly, not liking the way Hakuba was bargaining, "six more weeks, giving you a total of twelve weeks in which I won't lay a finger on you."

"_Two Roses.  
One in white.  
One in black.  
Similar goals, yet opposite sides. _

_One natural, innocent and pure.  
The other unnatural, dark and cold.  
Is the moon that opposes the sun allowed to play with the eclipse?_

_The first line of space is you, whilst the second is hidden in the meaning of 7.2-7._"

Hakuba recited from his head, "signed with a picture of a black rose. It was handwritten. It's a 'come out and play' card for KID, from Night Baron."  
"It doesn't say Night Baron, and I've never heard that Night Baron is called Black Rose," Kaito stated doubtfully, "I might have to retract those six weeks, and one more for psychological suffering."  
"It was _handwritten_. I got a note from Night Baron about Nightmare some time ago. He was the one that wrote the file on Nightmare, so almost everything we knew about Nightmare came from Night Baron," the detective stated solemnly, remembering a good friend that had died in a fire, while Kaito restrained his wish to gape; he'd read that file when he heard that Nightmare had come to Japan, but sadly the man fell to his death even though Kaito tried to save him, "so I immediately recognised it as his. And Night Baron's associated with black roses the same way that KID is associated with white ones, if you doubt me, watch a few videos that fans of his made. I haven't deciphered the sentence 'Similar goals, yet opposite sides', but I think it has something to do with the fact that Night Baron doesn't return his loot. The fifth and sixth sentences are aimed at the fact that KID is natural, in the sense that he was created by his 'owner', while Night Baron is a stolen identity, which was created by Kudou Yuusaku and not himself. Night Baron is also a murderer in the books so he's dark and cold, compared to Kaitou KID. And 'the moon that opposes the sun' is the full moon, while an eclipse in the exact opposite. I don't know the meaning of the first part of the last sentence, but I think that the second part has something to do with the full moon, since the seventh sentence on the note and the words 2-7 are 'the moon that opposes the sun'."

"That information was not worth six weeks," Kaito muttered irritated.  
"But you already agreed," the detective pointed out, "throw in another three and I'll tell you what I've compiled on Night Baron."  
"Deal," the thief answered before Hakuba had time to raise the number.  
"He's been more active than KID. In the beginning he struck once or twice a month, but nowadays he can strike multiple locations during one night. He usually leaves a code with the locations, but not always. His record is in Surat in India, where he struck twenty-five diamond exhibits, jewellers and diamond cutters during one night, but it was only time until he struck the town where approximately 92% of the worlds diamonds are cut and polished. My new theory is that Night Baron started stealing in his younger teens, and I'm guessing that he's been living on the streets before that and was picked up by someone that helped him start his career. He's incredibly clever and has a taste for cheep tricks. He's exceptional at climbing and jumping, and he has little to no sense when it comes to danger. He will jump off a building with only the hope that his grappling hook will be able to save him, which brings me to the fact that his clothes are handmade, probably by himself or whoever got him into stealing, and so are his gadgets. He dances, fights and does whatever he wants. He doesn't seem to be bothered by dangling other criminals from buildings. He has done that more than once when he interrupted police investigations, most times it was because the criminal had kidnapped a child, so he does feel the need to protect children, and he's never been known for killing anyone, even if he couldn't care less if he gives you a few bruises. He's rougher with criminals than with policemen and has never injured a police officer badly even though he's broken bones on criminals. The perpetrator that he hangs alongside buildings is always secured with rope so that he won't fall to his death, but there are knots along the rope, made to open and make the criminal fall a couple of decimetres before the next knot begins to open, most likely to make the criminal scream in terror. And, judging by the notes he must have somewhat of an education, at least enough to be able to understand a little more advanced science. He enjoys what he does and doesn't like to be insulted; if that happens he will retaliate against the one that offended him, nothing too violent, but still shameful. He can disguise just as good as KID can, I don't know how quick he is, though, but I've never heard of him disguising as a woman, so I think that he can't actually change his voice to that of a woman's," Hakuba quickly informed his classmate, hoping that the thieves would go head to head and end up caught. Kaito listened intently and nodded from time to time as the detective continued talking about Night Baron's abilities and tricks that he'd used before.

* * *

As soon as Kaito got out of school he made his way home and begun his own research on the thief that was only mentioned once in a while in the newspapers in Japan, but even so, he found many fan-sites for Night Baron in Japanese. Watching videos from both fans and news channels made Kaito realise why Hakuba called Night Baron insane more than once; he thief could jump from the third floor, hit asphalt and still get up and run as if he'd jumped down from a chair, but what Kaito found most fascinating was the stories about Night Baron that riddled the English fan-sites; the thief accepted challenges from his fans. Paige, a girl in her later teens that was aspiring to become a dancer, had made some gushy thread on a fan-forum about her wish to dance with the thief and asked what kind of dances everyone thought that the Baron knew. A month later the thief had struck in the town where she lived, and she'd been there at the heist, watching her idol throw himself out a window, climb along the wall and then entered a few floors down. There had been a long wait and she'd received a message on her phone.

'_How about that dance?  
~Night Baron'_  
The teenager had stared in disbelief at the message and then showed her friend, Brook, that too had stared in shock.  
_'There's an electronics store behind the crowd that has some really nice speakers. Not many people nowadays knows how to tango,'_ came the next message from the same number.  
_'How do I know that you're not just some dangerous guy?'_ Paige nervously sent and began to make her way to the back of the crowd with her friend following her, too curious to not take a look.  
_'Who says that I'm not dangerous? But you don't have to worry; we're not going anywhere. You will be the star of the news,'_ the alleged Night Baron answered and made the girls smile and keep messaging.  
_'How did you get my number?'_ Paige wondered as she got the end.  
_'I can get the secret code to deactivate the alarms of the museum. It's much easier to find your number when I have both your name and address from your profile on the forum.'_  
_'That's creepy. If you're not Night Baron I'm calling the police,'_ the teenager answered and then stared in shock as she got out of the crowd, seeing Night Baron stand not far from his fans, casually leaning against the wall of the electronics store, with a mobile in his hand, but no one noticed him since everyone was concentrating on the museum.

'_Technically you should call the police now, since I'm a wanted man, but how about a dance first?'_ Night Baron sent and waited for an answer, but instead of getting one he felt watched and looked up to see that the teenager was staring at him. With a smile Night Baron dropped the mobile to the ground and took off his mask to look less threatening. The thief placed it in his inner pocket, grinning at how much the dance was going to annoy the police once they found out, and since everyone already knew what the lower part of his face looked like all he needed was his second mask. Using dance steps he walked out to the middle of the street and then held out his hand, inviting the girl to a dance. Paige took off her thin wind jacket and handed it to Brook and walked up to the thief, using the same kind of steps, while her friend pulled up her camera and started filming them.

"Night Baron," the nineteen-year-old had greeted as she took the thief's hand, "don't embarrass me."  
"I won't," the thief had replied with an amused grin and pulled the girl close to him, seeing her blush slightly at the intimacy even though she was used to it, "just take the steps that you've trained on for the performance and no one will believe their eyes."  
"So you've watched me," Paige wondered with a raised eyebrow, "very creepy."  
"I'm professional," he replied, grinning at the tone in her voice that revealed that she was joking.  
"I sure hope so," she smiled back, carefully watching his green eyes, unaware that Shinichi was wearing contacts, and heard the music come on.

* * *

Kaito sighed as he read the over-romantic story that the girl had written and then watched the video that her friend had taken. The magician stared in wonder as he saw the dance between the two. It encompassed everything that tango was; love, intimacy and passion, even though they were complete strangers. The people that had heard the music turned around and as they saw what was going on they alerted others, so that the dancers got an audience. Kaito couldn't help but gape as Night Baron and the girl did a faster part in the end that ended up with the thief tipping her backwards while almost touching their noses. The thief grinned as the music ended.  
"Thank you for the loveliest of dances, my dear Paige," Night Baron said as he helped the girl up, but as he did she took the liberty of throwing her arms around his neck and kissed him. For a moment Kaito was almost certain that the thief had become confused by the kiss, but then placed a hand underneath the girl's chin and broken it.  
"No, _thank you_, Night Baron, for making my dream come true," Paige had smiled and taken a step away, hearing that the police officers were trying to make their way through the crowd that was unwilling to move for them.  
"Farewell," Night Baron bowed and handed her a black rose from his inner pocket before he ran into the alley, disappearing before the police made it there.

What Kaito, however, didn't know was that Shinichi had been ranting to his amused parents that he still couldn't understand girls; why was he considered creepy if he did one thing as himself and not creepy if he did it as Night Baron? What was it about dressing up weirdly that made others think that he wasn't some kind of creep? And what was it that attracted females to danger?

* * *

The magician frowned after he'd been sitting glued to the biggest fan-forums for the other thief and reading stories about him. Kaito didn't know how much was true and how much was just made up, since there were a lot of interactions; everything from swordfights to dances and car races, but at least Night Baron couldn't sing to save his life, if Kaito were to believe one person who had performed a song for the thief. Even though the anonymous user NightSinger had no recording and had received a lot of angry comments defending Night Baron's singing Kaito felt a bit satisfied believing that the other couldn't sing, since he otherwise only was praised by everyone, but Kaito couldn't really expect anything less since it was Night Baron-fans that were telling stories. For a moment he considered finding a Kaitou KID forum and make a user there to investigate what his fans thought of the other, but as his eyes had become dry he decided that that project was for another day.

Yawning, Kaito realised that it was getting late and that he should be getting to bed, but just as he was about to shut down the site a somewhat newly made topic caught his attention.  
_'White Rose, Japan,'_ the headline read and Kaito clicked on it, seeing that the creator was an anonymous user by the name Black Rose. Suspicion grew in his mind and Kaito read the entry.

'_We met earlier and I felt that we really connected, but you are my other half, are you not?  
Can my lovely White Rose figure out the eighth sentence?  
~ Black Rose'_

Kaito stared at the entry that had been made late the night of the heist and blinked; Night Baron actually wanted to talk to him? And it couldn't be a fake entry, since no one except the Kaitou KID, Hakuba and Kaito knew that Night Baron had come for a visit. The magician frowned; how did Night Baron expect him to respond. His eyes was drawn to the square 'login'-box in the upper left corner and he blinked before he realised how.  
"The first line of space is you," Kaito repeated from his memory and wrote in White Rose as his user name, "whilst the second is hidden in the meaning of 7.2-7. Which is talking about the full moon." Kaito wrote in 'Full moon' and then became logged in.

'_Yes, I can, and you do realise that what you wrote can be misinterpreted as something else?  
Now what was that about "having no honour"?'_ Kaito sent as a reply and then closed the lid of the laptop, seeing that his alarm clock was showing 02:36, and went to bed.


	20. A Dark Case

A/N: Wow, we're already on Chap. 20?! How did that happen?

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 17  
Uploaded: 2013-04-13  
Chapter rating: K+  
Words: 2,900

* * *

**Chap. 20  
A Dark Case**

Kaito checked the thread of the forum for an update every five seconds throughout his entire first class and didn't even bother anyone since he was too busy with trying to beat his phone in a starring contest, but it wasn't until the end of the second lesson that there came a reply.

'_That's exactly what I was going for, my dear Rose. Nice to see that you figured out my message. I hoped that you would. It would so so boring otherwise... Me, alone, talking to myself...  
How are you this fine day? I hope that you're not holding a grudge, not when it's this sunny.'_

Kaito read the message and sent a glance out the window, seeing that the sky was undeniably blue and the sun was shining. He sent a glance to his phone and typed in an irritated reply, but before he sent it he erased it and decided to act more like a gentleman.

'_Good time to get up, sleepyhead, morning is almost over. I'd invite you for brunch, but I don't think that you'd accept. And I do have to thank you for what you did; I didn't think you would. I was certain that I'd have to call my blonde friend (and his associates) to confess that you had it,'_ Kaito wrote and sent, hoping that he could keep the other thief talking so that he would accidently reveal things about himself.

'_Indeed, I am a late sleeper. I really hate early mornings as of lately; I blame jetlag, but I never was the kind to rise with the sun. Have you been here waiting for me? If you have, I am truly sorry for that, and any inconvenience I have caused you by borrowing your friend's stuff. And I might just take you up on that offer! I don't feel like cooking this early, so do you know of any good cafés or restaurants?'_ Night Baron replied almost immediately and Kaito raised an eyebrow; he would not give the other thief any names of restaurants that he liked, not when Night Baron could pinpoint the areas of where he moved around with that information.

'_I just bought 15 different kinds of canned coffees. I love this place. We need more of these vending machines at home. Milk coffee, black coffee, hazelnut, iced coffee. So much to taste!'_ Kaito blinked at the second message and frowned; Night Baron was just weird for a thief, especially since he was supposed to be an enemy. He also seemed so strange; serious and old in one moment and then suddenly exited like a child, but the magician assumed that it was his way of trying to lure him into revealing information by finding out what kind of personality Kaitou KID reacted to with more openness.

'_Sorry, I don't think I have many good restaurants for you to try. I like home cooked meals, and therefore don't eat out much, but this place is big and you don't have to go far in order to get a really good meal (or so I've heard through rumours).  
You sure like your coffee! You must look like an idiot walking around with a bunch of cans in your arms, but I know that there is a really great restaurant opposite to Tropical Land; they serve a mix of western and eastern food according to yesterdays paper,'_ he responded and hoped that Night Baron would react with more openness now that he acted a bit more open.

'_Yes, home cooked is the best, but I'm far from home and don't carry around a kitchen in my pocket. But considering how good you are you might be able to.  
Who cares if I look like an idiot? I'm 'just a stupid tourist' anyway; or that was what the guy I just passed called me. Tropical Land is too far away; I'm not that patient, but I think I know the restaurant you're talking about. They have free desserts, don't they?'_ Kaito's eyes grew large as he read; there were free desserts at that place? Why hadn't anyone told him that? And why hadn't he been there before?_ 'I don't like the milk coffee; it's too sweet for my taste, but I'll try the one without sugar now. So what are you up to?'_

'_Working, but I'm currently sitting in the sunlight, bored out of my mind. I really have to find something better to do than this. I'm wondering when we should meet again, and next time you won't be able to fool me into believing that you're completely brainless,' _Kaito wrote and wondered how much the other thief would pry in order to gain information.

'_I'm sensing a lingering animosity, quite possibly consisting of a three-day-old frustration.  
But it's not my fault; you were the one that underestimated me. I've learnt to never underestimate anyone; stupidity is paid in lead bullets where I'm from, and they can so easily lead to your death. I don't know when we should meet. I just got here yesterday so I won't show if you say tomorrow,'_ Night Baron replied and Kaito raised an eyebrow, _'I might do dangerous tricks, but I'm not stupid enough to be reckless and get caught. I knew that I would be able to get away if I had surprise on my side.'_

'_Really? What if I were to host a party every night this week? My British neighbour would hate it since he gets up early, so it's all win for me,'_ the magician smirked, remembering one time when he'd held heists every night and Hakuba had been sleep-deprived while the thief had just slept in school, but what Kaito didn't know was that Shinichi was sitting at a café with his breakfast in front of him ever since he responded to the first message.

The western thief smiled amused as he drank a bit from his coffee and threw a glance out to the road, knowing that he had a meeting with the Human Resources Manager of the hotel on the other side of the street who was hiring a few new staff members for half-time, and as little as Shinichi actually wanted to do that kind of work he had to make his identity believable, especially since Night Baron was going to strike that hotel in three months. The thief finished his breakfast, messaged with Kaitou KID and then paid and went to his meeting, hoping that the manager would hire him; he had a great résumé and was very pleasant to deal with when he wanted.

Shinichi had been hired on the spot, much to his surprise; he didn't know that language skills were that highly valuated. The thief was given the hotel staff's outfit and then handed to an older worker that gave him a tour and told him what was expected of him. Annoyed, Shinichi had ended up putting on his Night Baron-face in a stall in a restroom on his way to one of the Organization's headquarters; one that he hadn't visited before. He'd even missed dinner and was forced to buy a pizza from a vending machine, muttering about all of the strange things that could be bought in the devices; everything from ice-cream cones and live crabs to beer and fries.

* * *

The thief opened a locker at the central station, taking out a guitar case that he'd prepared a few days before and then headed back to the train to continue his path to the headquarter, pretending to be sleeping in a corner on the passenger car while clutching the case. When Shinichi finally got to the place he could see that the ones that were working there were beginning to leave, and inside an office he found Gin drinking a cup of black coffee.  
"Late," the man whispered, anger clearly visible in his cold eyes.  
"I know," Shinichi smirked indifferently and walked up to the desk, seeing that the murderer was almost so fed up of waiting that he was about to wound him, "but I have a reason for being late." The teenager, in disguise of a confident blonde man in his mid-thirties with a thin moustache, placed the guitar case on the desk, receiving an impatient glare as he turned it around. "I think that this might've been on your wish-list to Santa," Shinichi forced a grin to his lips, feeling his heart beat hard in fear that the man would kill him for being late; he'd just been lucky that he procured the contents earlier. Gin's eyes widened ever so slightly as he saw the weapon and without a word he stood up and took it out to assemble it, obviously content and no longer carrying the murderous intent that he'd held before.

"Enter," the man said lowly as he pointed the now loaded sniper rifle at the entrance and Shinichi looked behind himself, seeing the door open, and he silently berated himself for not paying more attention to his surroundings; he couldn't let Gin scare him to that extent, not when he was at such a dangerous place. A woman with long, brown hair that Shinichi recognized from somewhere froze in the doorway as she found herself facing the end of a barrel.

"Gin," she greeted and brushed a few of the brown wisps of hair behind her ears, only for them to fall back into her face, "how's the investigation coming?"  
"Kir, you're not here to socialize, what do you want?" Gin asked coldly while taking down the rifle.  
"Vermouth informed me that you might be here, and I needed to inform Chianti that Akai changed the location of Pétrus," the woman informed, glaring at the man while sending a few glances to Shinichi.  
"Fine, tell me the address and I'll make sure that the traitor wakes up in a pool of his own blood," Gin grinned, pleased with the information, and then sent a glance to the thief, "can you handle hearing things like that or do you want your mommy?"

Shinichi scowled at the murderer and snorted, "don't be a fool, just because I believe that you leave the murdering to the murderers and the thieving to the thieves."  
"You're not a thief; you're just a freak-show in a cape and hat, useless to the organization and a waste of my time. You're nothing but a dog that _that person_ enjoys watching doing tricks. You're nothing but a toy on boss' shelf, just like Vermouth."  
"That sounds _really_ good coming from the one that's unable to even do his job correctly," Shinichi countered, knowing that pissing off the psychopath was bad, but if he folded he would be walked over by Gin and he needed the tiny amount of respect that having the courage to piss him off gave, "tell me; whose fault is it that the FBI are even aware that we exists? Wasn't it because you were unable to clean up your own mess?"

Anger flashed past Gin's eyes and Shinichi knew that he'd gone too far, but as the man grabbed harder into the sniper rifle and swung it around the thief dodged and tore it out of his hands by spinning it before he automatically used the end of it to smack the man in the head. Terror ran through Shinichi's body as he saw a red bruise on the man's face that had been turned away from the force in the strike. Catching a glimpse of the woman out of the corner of his eyes he saw the same kind of terror and shock as he himself felt, but as he turned his head towards her she met his eyes and neither showed anything through their mended poker faces.  
"If you don't need my help, then say it, and I'll be out of here so that I don't have to waste my time with you, but then you're the one that has to explain why your grandiose ego is the fault of why she continues to evade you," Shinichi continued and placed the gun before the man that was glaring at him, "I might not kill people, but I've never left a single piece of evidence behind; _that's_ why I'm on boss' shelf."

"You're just like her," the man muttered, "doing whatever you please."  
"Shut up Gin, and try to act like you're professional. Our personal disagreements are none of the organization's problems, and I intend to keep it that way," Shinichi growled and held his confusion at bay at the man actually laughed.  
"You got some nerve, Night Baron, saying that to _my_ face," Gin grinned coldly, and took up the gun to disassemble it, smiling slightly at the seemingly calm and somewhat annoyed thief, "but you have your ways of getting your hands on things that doesn't even exist yet, now how the hell did you get this?"  
"The factory that's going to be making them in Canada," Shinichi stated as he watched the man close the guitar case, "now, where was the last place you saw Sherry?"

"Kir, walk with us," Gin demanded and picked up his concealed weapon before he headed to the door, beginning to speak while the woman moved out of the way and Shinichi followed, sending a glance to Kir as he passed her, "she was refusing to do her job so I cuffed her to an iron pipe to deal with her later. The cuffs were on tight and fully functional. They are still hanging on the pipe and the pipe is whole. No cameras caught her running away; she just vanished into thin air, and the cameras haven't been messed with either. I'm certain that there's more than one traitor in the organization, I can smell their stench." Shinichi swallowed and concentrated on his task of finding clues to how Sherry got away, ignoring the fact that Gin sounded like a certain insane diamond thief that he'd met in Germany.

Shinichi examined the cuffs that were hanging on the pipe in the dark and damp room, hearing Kir describe how she found out the location of Pétrus and where the man was hiding. The thief focused more on the sounds of the Organization members than on the actual case he'd been given; if he found Sherry, or when he found her, he would definitely protect her. The cuffs that hung from the pipe weren't flawed in any way; there were no scratch marks beside the keyhole, he found no nicks on the inside either and there were no skin or anything left on the rings from where Sherry had to have pulled her hand out, so Gin simply hadn't closed them good enough.

"Are you sure that you closed them?" Shinichi wondered loudly as Kir left and heard a low growl.  
"Of course I did," Gin stated as he leaned on the wall and lit a cigarette, "so hard that they hurt her."  
"Did you check so that she didn't steal the key from you?"  
"There's no key, I let the cop I killed keep them, and the only thing she had was a capsule of the poison,"  
"Sherry was making a poison?" the thief wondered and stood up, looking rather uninterested in the conversation and more interested of the small room with only a tiny barred window.  
"It's supposedly undetectable after it kills its victim, and so far it works. It's called Apoptoxin 4869, after that failure of a detective," Gin responded and saw the other's raised eyebrow, "Sherlock Holmes." Shinichi decided to not initiate any more personal talk even though he had to bite his tongue to not protect his hero; it wouldn't do him any good if Gin found a way to rile him up and lose his cool, so he simply shook his head and changed subject.

"Okay, I need to see where the cameras are," the thief demanded and was lead out of the room, but as he would see, the only possible way out without passing by a camera was through a narrow laundry chute. Even though it was too small for any grown human being to pass through he shone a light into it seeing that a few strands of light-brown hairs were stuck in a junction further down.

Shinichi sighed as he closed the chute and walked past Gin.  
"I'll call if I make any progress," he stated as he walked ahead with a murderer behind his back.  
"That's it?" Gin asked coldly, clearly angry again.  
"I'm not a magician. If you want someone to conjure up people for you to kill you should've called Spider, or you could ask if you can kill him, I've heard that he's out on deep water right now," the thief answered, disgusted by the act he had to pull, and pressed the button to the elevator, seeing Gin glare the entire time he waited for it, "have a good day. Don't stay up too long to play with your new toy. You know that momma hates that."

As the teenager got to the entrance floor he left the elevator and walked down the stairs to the basement, carrying the discs from the cameras that Gin had given him, and he found a second way out; the impossible way, but since the woman's hair was in the chute that far down, she'd have to have gone there, weather it was in pieces or not. After getting out through a parking garage Shinichi walked for a while, checking which places would get the footage from the security cameras checked during the night, but much to his disappointment there were no trace of the woman. He wouldn't give up either, so he simply expanded the search perimeters, copying the tapes of every shop so that he wouldn't bring any unwanted attention to himself; she was a person that needed protection.

* * *

A/N: Pétrus in Pomerol – a French wine  
I'm not sure if Canada has the best manufacturer, but they does have the best snipers going by the world records and sniping competitions.


	21. Knights of Black and White

A/N: I've really loved writing on Twisted Path lately, maybe because I've crossed over the gigantic hole in the timeline that I've been dealing with. XD

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 17  
Uploaded: 2013-04-19  
Chapter rating: K+  
Words: 3,500

* * *

**Chap. 21  
Knights of Black and White**

Kaito waited nervously for the heist to start, a heist that he'd left a simple note for, but only an hour after the media had released the heist note a response had shown up. The magician had been watching the news about his note outside a station as he waited for the train when the news reporter had said something surprisingly. The man had read the note on the screen on the live news and then continued as Kaito listened; "And on a related subject. Expect me. Signed Black Rose. Expect me. Sign-," he stopped and looked around the studio in confusion, before he looked back into the camera with a smile, "we seem to be experiencing some technical difficulties at the moment." The screen went black and Night Baron's mask grinned back at the stunned magician; he had never even thought about breaking into a news station to insert his message into the news, but it was quite impressive, and apparently everyone thought like him so they kept airing the clip on the news while discussing who Black Rose was and what the message was about, but they quickly got it right.

Breathing quietly and calmly as an officer in riot gear Kaito began feeling a bit excited; he knew how good the other was, but he couldn't know what he was planning, and from the conversation they'd had on the forum it didn't seem as Night Baron wanted to throw him in jail. Their conversations had wandered between topics that weren't too personal, and Kaito made sure that he didn't tell too much about himself even if they still had had some interesting conversations about Arsène Lupin and Herlock Sholmes, or also known as Sherlock Holmes. Night Baron had a very interesting view on the world, even though it was quite dark; he clearly distrusted every single human he came across and seemed like he preferred the company of books over that of humans, but that probably had something to do with the fact that he had been betrayed before and lived in a darker world than Kaito, travelled a lot and didn't have the time to maintain long friendships. It made the thief a bit sad to realise that Night Baron's current lifestyle might be in his own future; what happens when he's checked all the diamonds in Japan? Simply put; he would have to travel.

Kaito waited for a few seconds before he appeared inside the large glass case, grabbing the diamond encrusted handle of the sword and pulled it out together with the gold sheath decorated with rubies. He grinned and continued on his heist as if he expected nothing even though he kept a watchful eye out for any traps, and avoided a few on his way to the roof that let him know that the other thief was there somewhere. Kaito listened for the taskforce, only hearing the blonde detective a few floors behind him and kept running up the stairs, suddenly hearing a trap activate. Sending a glance down he saw that the Brit was covered in black dust and seemed to be somewhat glued to the staircase. Chuckling at the other thief's trap he missed the fake wall as he reached the door to the roof. Slamming it open Kaito expected Night Baron to be on the roof, so he immediately surveyed his surroundings together with the rooftops of the buildings around him as he ran out to it, but before he had the time to turn around the sword was yanked out of his hands and he found himself facing the end of a barrel.

"Night Baron," Kaito greeted displeased and gave the gun a disapproving glance as he tried to remember everything that the Brit had told him about the other thief and weapons, but the only thing he could remember was that Night Baron hit everything he shot at, "I really thought that you were better than that."  
"KID," Night Baron replied in a much darker voice than he'd used before, even though he still had the same kind of accent, and slowly moved around him in a circle, "fascinating heist, I enjoyed watching it."  
"Well... I, for one, am _very_ disappointed," the white-clad thief rolled his eyes as he pulled a flash bomb from his sleeve and held it in his hand as he waited for an opportunity. A helicopter spotted them on the roof and enlightened them from above, casting KID's face in shadows.  
"Don't worry. The gun is just a onetime thing," Night Baron stated as he took a few steps back, hearing how the KID-fans booed and his own fans yelled in excitement, "but it's nice of you to come out here, just for me."  
"Hah! Dream on Night Baron," Kaito let his poker face slip into a grin, wondering why everything the other thief said always sounded so suggestive in his head; maybe it was that silky voice that almost made him shiver. The dark-clad thief's voice seemed to encompass of so much feeling, warmth and danger; it was nothing of what he'd ever expected, "I only came here to fly."  
"You can fall from the sky, from a tree or even a cliff," Night Baron stated as he slowly backed away, "but the best way to fall is without control. That's when you feel truly alive."

Kaito heard how the door slammed open and thought that the other thief would avert his gaze, but as Night Baron kept looking into his own eyes he couldn't pull up his glasses and throw the flash bomb without alerting him.  
"Timetaker, long time, no see," Shinichi greeted the Brit in English without breaking eye-contact, knowing that the glue would slow every single step the detective took and heard how he gasped for air, "you're late, _as usual_."  
"It's a water gun!" the Brit roared out to the roof as he fought against the glue that threatened to stick him to it. KID's eyes widened as he remembered that particular information, but before he had time to make his move he saw how Night Baron pulled the trigger. On reflex his eyelids closed as the beam of water hit him in the face and then ran where he heard the steps go, quickly blinking the water out of his eyes.

Kaito gasped as a helicopter came into sight, seemingly blocking Night Baron's chosen leaping point with the spinning blades, but the thief jumped anyway, knowing that the pilot would move out of the way. He grabbed into one of the landing skids, seemingly making the helicopter spin around from the force, but it was just a female police officer that countered with a well-trained move for her adoptive son.

"Helicopter 3, Night Baron is underneath you!" Hakuba called out in the headset hearing a quiet swearing in the headset.  
"I feel that!" Avaron shouted and sent a glance to the man beside her, seeing the officer sit stiff as a board while grasping hard into the seat with wide eyes and she wondered if he would faint. Shinichi placed a foot firmly on the bottom of the helicopter and locked his other leg around the skid as he let go with his hands, holding hard into the sword while hanging upside down.

Kaito couldn't help but to gape as Night Baron waved a bit with the treasure and was then transported to the roof on the other side with the helicopter that tried to stabilise. The black-clad thief dropped down and ran as he landed on his feet and Kaito sent a glance to the detective that seemed to have accepted his fate of becoming glued to the roof as he sat there on his knees, trembling from exhaustion. He bolted along the roof, running along the edge, following the other thief with his eyes as he opened the glider.

Kaito avoided the turbulence the helicopters caused as he chased the other and landed on a roof not far from him. He followed Night Baron's movements, using his gadgets when the other thief proved to be better; it was hard for Kaito not to be impressed by how far the other could jump or fall without getting hurt, but he could still keep up.

They lost the police following them and Kaito found himself in a park, recognising it as the one beside Tropical Land.  
"Night Baron," he called out and forced the thief run out into an open area in order to avoid a change from black to pink while becoming less invisible in the light. People gasped as Night Baron stopped and backed a few steps when Kaitou KID appeared in front of him.

"Very impressive, KID," Shinichi applauded slowly, "not many people can follow me this far. I admire your diligence."  
"Well, I can't let you have _my_ treasure," the white-clad thief countered as he walked up to the other, only standing a few metres away.  
"I'm afraid that you have no say in that, you see, it's _my_ treasure now," he chuckled as he saw that a crowd was forming a large circle around them.  
"We'll see about that," KID grinned and pulled a sword out of nowhere.  
"If that's how it's going to be; I can't say no to a challenge," Night Baron stated as he pulled out the sword he'd stolen, seeing the perfectly shiny blade, "ah, it's too bad that the Chinese art of making these kinds of swords is gone. Today's blades just aren't the same."  
"En garde, sir Baaroo-n," KID called out with a grin, wondering if the other would understand the underlying insult in the name.  
"Very witty, sir KID-a-lot!" Shinichi laughed and swung the sword, careful enough to make sure that he didn't injure the other since he didn't know how good he was, but as they fought KID used all of his skill while Night Baron only seemed to enjoy a good time out, laughing from time to time and gave him some pointers when he made misses.

As their fighting continued it quickly escalated as they both knew that the other was good enough to not get hurt, making the crowds back further away, but as a shout was heard from a police officer that was trying to make his way through the mass Shinichi misstepped and only managed to pull his face away so that he wouldn't get injured and felt how the mask was torn from his head as the opponent's sword got stuck in it. KID's eyes widened and Shinichi quickly grabbed the sting of the monocle, making them both jump away from each other. KID covered his face with the mantle while Shinichi simply looked through his new souvenir, hiding the fact that he was impressed that the other had night vision, something that he used a pair of binoculars for.

"KID! Night Baron! You're both under arrest!" Nakamori bellowed to the two thieves.  
"How boring," Shinichi commented and then saw how Hakuba showed up, having black dust in his hair and shirt while the glue had dried to his legs.  
"I'm afraid that I won't be able to accompany you to the police station, Nakamori-keibu," KID grinned as he held Night Baron's mask in his hand and now carried a spare monocle over his eye.  
"Hey, KID," Shinichi grinned as he saw how the other stepped closer to a bench, having seen when he tied the line that went into the air to it, "I cut the line to your balloon. Run." With a laugh the black-clad thief ran towards the other side of the crowd, but before he reached them he shot the grappling hook straight into the air and disappeared, making KID's eyes widen; that was his balloon the thief just stole! With a mental growl he threw a flash bomb to the ground and shot the grappling hook to it, but as Night Baron reached the balloon first he swung the sword and cut off his rival's line.

Shinichi grinned as he watched how a smoke bomb went off and saw three gliders fly off in different directions. With a last look to the officers he began to examine the controls for the strange, drifting balloon that he'd seen with the thief's monocle; KID seemed to have created both of them to be a match since the balloon was black, but through the monocle he'd been able to see it glowing in a weak blue light. In only moments he was beginning to move away from the scene, amazed by the gadget that the other thief had at his disposal, but now it belonged to Night Baron.

* * *

Saguru frowned up at the gliders, staying behind the taskforce that immediately had split into three groups while the crowd went back on their way. The quiet sound of a branch cracking, followed by the crushing of what sounded like a bush made the detective walk into the forest and look around with his flashlight.  
"Kuroba, what a surprise to see you," Saguru grinned amused as he found his classmate and made it evident in his tone that he was being sarcastic, "did the big bad Night Baron beat you?"  
"Shut up, Hakuba, I'm not KID," the thief complained with a wince, "these are rosebushes, could you help me up?" the Brit seemed considerate and then extended a hand to help his criminal classmate from the sharp thorns.  
"So Kuroba, what are you doing here?" the detective inquired with a smile, deducing what kind of lie the thief would come up with and almost guessed spot on.  
"I was climbing the tree so that I could get a better view of KID-sama, but I didn't know that there were carnivorous bushes with teeth underneath," the magician stretched carefully, feeling as if he'd really been chewed on.  
"So, you, being a fan of KID, what do you think of Night Baron?" the detective smirked as he rubbed the loss in the thief's face.  
"KID-sama will beat that smug bastard, no questions asked,"  
"We'll see. KID failed miserably this time so what is it that says that he won't fail again, and again, and again?" the detective taunted, knowing that the thief couldn't touch him as long as he was Kuroba Kaito; Saguru still had safe-weeks left.  
"Ooh... Shut up, you stupid detective. You can't even catch KID so how would you ever be able to beat Night Baron?" Kaito pouted a bit, but little did he know that the next day in school he would get to laugh at the Brit, since the dust Night Baron had placed in his trap turned into colouring when mixed with water, forcing Saguru to show up looking like a black leather couch.

* * *

Yuusaku sent a glance to the terrified girl with auburn, shoulder length hair that had been watching the live heist on his TV, still not wanting to believe that Night Baron was part of the organization she was running from, but if she said it he had to accept it.  
"I can't stay here," the shrunken scientist stated as she hugged her legs, "not when they have summoned Chivas Regal."  
"I made sure to erase your tracks; no one will find you," the detective stated, having already accepting that the child was an adult whose name now was Haibara Ai and lived with his best friend next door.  
"No, you don't understand," Haibara argued in a quiet voice, "I've called Night Baron to me on a few occasions. He finds whatever he searches for. I once sent him off to find a stolen memory stick that contained research and I barely had any information about how it got stolen or who stole it. He came back a week later with the USB in his pocket. He _finds_ things. If he's in Japan then he'll definitely be used to track me down. I have to leave, for your safety."  
"No, the best course of action is for you to stay. They most likely know that you will try to leave the country, so staying close to them is where you are safest, and they are searching for an adult, not a child," the man reasoned and only heard a low gruff as an answer while Haibara thought it over.

* * *

The city looked big and lively from his place under the balloon as he flew with it. Shinichi had discovered that it had a rope that was of no use, until it had fallen down and created a loop in which he could place a foot for support. Reaching the destination where he was supposed to meet someone he discovered a small red light that moved and pulsed a bit on the roof, and by using KID's monocle he saw that it was the light of a cigarette that a man in dark clothing was smoking. Many years with the organization had made him very suspicious of other people, especially the ones that he was supposed to meet and he knew that it was very important to establish who was superior, so he soundlessly dropped down on the structure of the door and observed the man that threw the cigarette over the edge of the roof before he lit the next. After seeing that he wasn't moving Shinichi carefully climbed down from the construction, making sure that his clothes didn't make any sound and walked up to him.

"Chain smoker, ey?" he stated lowly as he reached the man, seeing him twitch and spin around with a hand into his inside breast pocket. Shinichi recognized a gun and tore it out of the man's hands before he'd even gotten it completely out. The middle-aged man in black clothes and a short Fu Manchu moustache seemed unable to comprehend what had happened as he now had the barrel of his own gun pressed against his throat. "I'm not really a big fan of guns in my face, so if you wish to keep breathing I suggest that you never do it again," Shinichi said calmly and let a cold smile show on his lips, hating the way he had to act inside the organization, "now who are you?" Taking a better look at the man's face made him realise that he actually recognized him from somewhere.

"Chivas Regal, good to see that you're not glued to any surface," the man muttered with a discontent scowl.  
"I know who you are. You're Jackal, the diamond thief," Shinichi raised an eyebrow at the familiar face that he'd seen after he got to Germany so many years ago; he'd memorised thieves that had been active in Europe at the time.  
"To the world I'm known as Jackal, but to you I'm Snake; the person you're supposed to had the sword over to."  
"That's so inconvenient... Why don't I just deliver it myself? But fine," the thief loosened the grip of the gun as he took a step back while handing over the sword. Shinichi let the man take the sword and almost allowed him to take the gun, but before Snake was able to he snatched it back again, covering the fact that he placed it in his sleeve and then dropped gun parts on the roof. Snake gaped and stared at the pieces as if he'd lost a beloved while Shinichi quickly placed a comforting arm around the man's shoulders.  
"There there," he said and without Snake noticing he placed the real gun back inside his pocket and stole the wallet, "I'm sure that they can get you a new one."

"Son of a bitch!" the man roared and lashed out with an arm, missing the thief that easily dodged and took a few steps away, "I'm gonna make sure that Whisky makes you pay for that!" Snake's face twisted into a disgusted growl as Shinichi turned his back to him and began to walk away.  
"You might what to check your inner pocket," the thief stated as he stopped and looked through the man's wallet, registering names of shops on the receipts and looked at a picture that had been taken many years ago when the man was in his twenties; there was a young Snake smiling while holding an infant in his arms and hugging who Shinichi could only assume had been his wife. The name of a cemetery was written in the corner so the thief drew the conclusion that they were dead.  
"How the hell?!" the man called out as he held into his gun; the only possession he truly valued, "how did you do that?!"  
"I began as a pickpocket," Shinichi grinned as he turned around, seeing the man examine his own gun while sending suspicious glances down to the parts, "it's just as easy for me to steal a jewel from KID as it is to place a gun in your pocket."  
"You've spent too much time with Spider," Snake grumbled, annoyed by the fact that he's been fooled by the thief.  
"Oh, and your wallet," Shinichi said as if he just remembered it and threw it to the man that caught it and opened it, seeing that it really was his wallet.  
"Don't touch my fucking things!" Snake called out and he looked up, but the roof was completely empty, and where Night Baron had been standing only a second ago there was only the wind, "fucking thieves... All of them are of the same kind..." The man swore a bit as he left the roof, thinking that he had to speak with Whisky about his wish to rather not have to deal with Night Baron ever again; he reminded him too much of a violent Kaitou KID for his taste.

* * *

A/N: Baaroo – idiot, short for bakayaro. Conan uses it a lot


	22. A Buried Hatchet

A/N: I'm writing on this story and 'In the Footsteps of Others' but not on 'Last Time In Moonlight'. I've grown a bit bored of it, and I feel sorry for anyone that reads LTM and want me to continue it. Sorry!

Also, why can I press on the button 'follow this story' when I'm the one writing it? That makes less sense than ice cream in the oven.

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness, there are lots of timejumps in this one!

Shinichi's age: 17  
Uploaded: 2013-05-03  
Chapter rating: K+  
Words: 3,800

* * *

**Chap. 22  
A Buried Hatchet**

Shinichi sighed tiredly after he'd watched a ton of security videos and exchanged a few messages with Kaitou KID; apparently the thief thought it was too violent to cut his line and had decided to give him the silent treatment by only replying with a few words every time, but after a while of flattering and gently teasing comments he'd loosened up again. White Rose had to in order to defend his pride from Black Rose that was babying him. The western thief knew that KID could handle that little fall, especially since he had the glider so he didn't really understand what the problem was, except that he'd wounded the other's pride when he won; Kaitou KID was one of the best thieves out there, and so was Night Baron.

The western thief got up from his desk chair and marked a tiny place on the large map over Tokyo he had hanging on the wall in red; Sherry had not passed by that store. Slowly and meticulously he marked out a way through alleys that would miss her running away, and since he hadn't found any car that was heavier than normally that had travelled out of the research building he had to assume that she made it out by foot or was still there. He was watching the next security video while examining the car garage in his mind when something caught his attention in the video, so he rewound it and then saw the edge of a lab coat. With a smile he got up and marked the map with a tiny red dot, not wanting it to stand out too much, and with the help of the direction of the white coat he saw tiny cuts of the path she'd taken, but he quickly realised where she was running and why he hadn't been able to find many tapes of her. She'd gone to the place he had promised to never set a foot in, a place that filled his heart with raging hate; Beika, and only one person would be good enough to protect her and erase the tapes that contained obvious signs of her.

"_Yuusaku_," the thief growled as he tore down the map from its place and accidently struck the neatly piled discs of security footage at the same time, making them crash into the floor as the chair tipped over from the violent move. Shinichi had avoided going to the police station, since he wasn't sure if he would be able to control himself around his biological father and only solved cases that he stumbled over, but from what Megure had told him Yuusaku had requested to meet him, _'as he was such an inspiring young detective'_, but the thief had drawn out the information that the detective-and-author thought that he looked like his missing son. Shinichi didn't trust a word that came out of the inspector's mouth as he'd been told that the man had never forgiven himself and was still looking, not when he had access to such a bad file on the kidnapping; the man had married an actress and was a criminal genius. Yuusaku would probably be able to pretend being sad his entire life, and that was an act that Shinichi would _never_ buy.

Something entrapped him and he reacted on instinct, trying to assault his attacker, but he immediately became even more restrained and unable to move.  
"Dad..." he whispered, relaxing as he realised that he wasn't being attacked; he was being hugged.  
"How are you?" Satoru whispered as he loosened his grip around his son's wrists and felt the teenager lean back against his chest.  
"Fine, I'm fine... Dad," Shinichi grasped into his father's arms, realising how lucky he'd been that he had a mother and father that loved him.  
"I've never actually seen you mess up your room because of anger," the man stated calmly with a questioning voice.  
"I found Sherry, or rather; I found where she most likely went. I never actually saw her, but I saw her lab coat."  
"Oh? But that's good, where did she go?"  
"Beika," the thief clenched his teeth, and Satoru immediately realised why his son was angry.  
"Then ignore everything. Let_ him_ take care of her, and you can concentrate on the organization," the man tried to lighten his son's feelings.  
"If she's there, then Yuusaku knows that Night Baron is part of the organization; I've worked for her so she knows of me and she would've told him," Shinichi stated, "so if Yuusaku comes to a heist he won't treat me the same as Kaitou KID, he will go all out trying to catch me, most likely saying that he's doing it because I stole Night Baron's name."  
"We're a family, remember that, and we won't allow you to fall into his hands," Satoru smiled as his son turned around and hugged him back.  
"Where's mom?" he mumbled into his father's shirt, remembering all of the happy memories that he had from his childhood as he tried to drown the ones of his old family.  
"On a date with some rich guy," the conman smiled as he patted his son's hair, "when you meet _him_, because you will one day, remember that he's a nobody. Tomorrow you and I will train your self-control."

* * *

Kaito couldn't do anything else but bang his head in the wall at home as he was done preparing for the ninth heist; he was losing, _every, single, heist_, and the British bastard in his class just wouldn't stop shoving it in his face. _Damn those safe-weeks! When they ran out, all hell would break loose!_

Sure on a few occasions neither of the thieves managed to steal the item because they were fighting each other the entire time and that was what he was what he could hope for at most; to prevent Night Baron from stealing the object, and that was something that the crowds seemed to be fascinated by seeing. A few times they almost got caught as they were fighting and were forced to draw back without even touching the item, but Night Baron would only retreat in order to return and steal the item as soon as he could wrap his larcenous fingers around it. In Kaito's head that was a loss too; KID would only win if he managed to steal the item and return it later, but Night Baron had stubbornness issues, and would continue to chase him. The third heist Kaito had been out the entire night and half of the day, running away from Night Baron that in the end got a hold of the item as the disguised, white-clad thief had just been sitting on the ground panting from exhaustion, unable to stop the other thief that walked up to him.

For some reason Night Baron seemed to enjoy ruining his disguises by attacking him earlier, and had no problem with stealing a few minutes before the time that he'd said in the heist note. The western thief also seemed to retreat easier if Yuusaku was at the heist, but Kaito could see why; the author was seriously trying to capture Night Baron, and had even told KID that he should be careful around him.

The black thief could see though his magic and used a bit of it against him, and as much as Kaito hated to admit it, Night Baron was faster when it came to opening locks and steal things out of pockets, leaving KID muttering about pocket thieves, but even though they fought all the time he had developed a lot of respect for the other ever since Night Baron saved him, and every time he remembered it his heart begins to beat harder; he had almost died that time, and that was when he stopped hating Night Baron. The problem soon became worse as Kaito's own body began to conspire against him, making him clumsy around the other and unable to concentrate completely.

The fifth heist Night Baron had replaced the diamond with a fake one before the right time and then vanished; Kaito hadn't even caught a glimpse of him, but in his irritation of finding the thief he'd run up to the roof of the skyscraper, thinking that he was there since they battled most battles on high altitudes, but the only thing that greeted him was a dangerously strong wind. While he was searching the rooftops for a moving shadow far below the taskforce showed up and called out for his surrender. With a smirk he'd thrown a flash bomb and was about to disguise when a particularly strong wing caught his mantle and forced him to take a step back, but unfortunately the only thing behind him was empty air, forcing him over the edge of the skyscraper.

To the media and the police he'd just disappeared as usual, but he'd been forced to unfold the glider that made him immediately crash into the building once another strong wind sent him off course. The edge of the glider had become bent at the impact with the steel and caused him to spin around in the air until he didn't know what was up or down. He dropped the mantle completely as he released the clasps from his shoulders and allowed it to spiral off on its own way, but as he pulled out his grappling hook he tried to shoot it at a window before he began moving too quickly, but it wasn't able to crush it; the window was bullet proof that high up in the air. In panic his head had whirled with ideas, many of which were completely useless since he didn't have the right gadgets, before he froze, unable to function as he watched the ground and lower buildings close in, and that's when Night Baron appeared from out of nowhere. Suddenly the black-clad thief was there, holding two arms around his waist, and then spun him around to hold him close.

"Idiot! We're going to die!" Kaito had screamed through the roaring winds as they fell, but he was still unable to release the death-hold he'd taken around Night Baron's upper body.  
"Of course not, silly," the other thief's calming voice chuckled in his ear, "I told you that I don't do stupid things, remember? We're just going to travel a bit longer." In a ball of white and black they fell, and Kaito suddenly realised what kind of proximity they had as he could smell the other thief's scent, but then again, he had buried his face in Night Baron's collar as his pride had hidden under a rock somewhere deep in his head.  
"Don't worry, I'll take care of this, just hold on with everything that you've got," the dark voice had washed over him like a calming wave, making him take an even harder grip around the western thief, while his brain had become strangely fixated on exploring what the thief smelled like, despite his approaching death; a last mystery before they were nothing but a whole lot of minced meat in an alley. Night Baron smelled a bit of food, and something sweet; it was a warm pleasant scent that just overwhelmed him.

A sharp jerk made Kaito almost lose he grip and then they had travelled slower and slower, feeling the same kind of forceful pull until they dropped hard in a pile in the alley.  
"We have now landed," Night Baron murmured in the same voice and Kaito could hear pain in it, even though he covered it up very well, but even if the thief was hinting for him to stop trying to squeeze him to death Kaito's body just wouldn't obey, "thank you for flying with airline Baaroo, wait until the belt signs turn off and the plane is completely still. We hope that you had a nice flight."  
"This is no time for jokes," he's tried to growl, but the only thing that came out was a quivering begging voice that didn't even sound as if it belonged to him, and he realised that he was actually crying into the other thief's shoulder.

"I'm sorry," the other thief whispered and stroke his back, "knowing that you're going to die is hard, especially if you have time to consider how painful it'll be. What will happen to your relatives, friends, and your family name once they discover who you are. All that... Believe me, I know." Kaito rolled off and tried to get up but his legs just wobbled a bit and he fell into the street on his stomach, trembling while staring at Night Baron who didn't move.

"Are you in pain?" the white-clad thief wondered after a while with a voice that still was shaking, even though he'd recovered from the shock.  
"A bit, but I've had worse. When Delon got in my way I jumped out of the window. The grappling hook saved me as it caught the lighting rod on the roof. I swung around the building and smacked into the wall before I struck a dumpster and fell to the ground with an injured leg," the thief grinned a bit amused at his memory, and made Kaito sigh.  
"Can we pretend that this never happened? That I never hugged you and cried like a child?" the white phantom wondered in a begging voice.  
"Sure," Night Baron cooed, clearly amused, and Kaito just knew that there was no way that he could ever get away from that memory, but as he tried to bang himself unconscious he suddenly caught a whiff of something delicious so he stopped; he could smell Night Baron and chocolate, and that's when he realised what the thief smelled of.

"Sun, beach, oranges, cinnamon, books," he accidently mumbled when his brain rambled it up, feeling how his trembling body was relaxing exhaustedly, and then saw that the thief, now without his white mask, gave him a questioning look as he ate a candy bar.  
"What?" Night Baron wondered and saw that the other was staring at his chocolate, "want some?"  
"You almost died and you're eating chocolate..."  
"It's still too painful to move my legs," the western thief mumbled and Kaito could see that he was repeating the words he'd used to describe what he smelled like, but then suddenly it seemed like he guessed what it was, "did you smell me?"  
"Shut up, I just had to breathe, and I might've accidently thought that you had an interesting scent," Kaito mumbled as he felt his cheeks burn.  
"Thank you," Night Baron smiled happily and made the thief blink; he'd been certain that he'd get teased for it, "you too smell interesting."  
"Huh? You smelled me?"  
"I notice things about others, a lot of things, almost everything in fact, you smell mostly of dust bombs-,"  
"Smoke bombs," Kaito corrected him.  
"Smoke bombs," Night Baron changed, "fireworks, feathers, vanilla and chocolate, which made me remember that I had chocolate on me. Want some?" The thief pulled out another bar, opened it and held it out, but Kaito hesitated, not knowing if it was tainted with something. As if Night Baron could read his mind he took a bite of it and offered it again.

"This is weird," Kaito mumbled as he took it and forced his body to roll around so that he was lying beside his enemy.  
"Life's a little weird," the other pointed out and saw the white thief stare at the chocolate, "people are a lot weird. All you have to do is look at why people are killing each other, but you're great. You never harm anyone, and I'd be damned if I'd let you get turned to ground beef."  
"Ha ha ha, not funny," Kaito muttered as he took a bite from what had to have been the most delicious chocolate bar he'd ever had; he was definitely keeping the wrapper, "you're weird; we're supposed to be enemies and you offers me chocolate."  
"Meh, chocolate is great, or at least this one is; I'm very picky when it comes to sweets. And being enemies is overrated, besides, I can't move for a while. You could take the diamond from me and walk away, my dear foe."  
"There's no honour in that, and what kind of thanks is it after you saved my life?"  
"You could buy me dinner," Night Baron suggested, making the teenager laugh.  
"That's not enough. For now I'll owe you one, but that doesn't mean that I'll go easier on you during the heists. Could you return the diamond?" Kaito tried as he finished the chocolate, seeing the blonde man shake his head.  
"I don't do that, but maybe one day I will," the western thief sighed, seemingly a bit gloomy, "could you help me up?"  
"Sure," Kaito quickly scrambled to his feet, wobbling a bit, but became steady and reached out for Night Baron's hands. The dark-clad thief groaned and leaned almost all his weight on him as he got up. For a moment Kaito's mind told him to pickpocket the other, but his honour quickly asked him how much his life was worth; more than the diamond? Yes, most definitely.

"Could you get my grappling hook for me? And we can call us even," the thief breathed and hissed as he stood up all by himself and then leaned on the wall.  
"That hardly seems equal, even if I were to buy you dinner," Kaito joked and looked around for the gadget, "where is it?" With a small chuckle Night Baron pointed up and made the magician look up. "Did we really fall from the second floor?" he gasped and stared at the long line that vanished too far up for him to see and ended in a gun-like gadget, bigger and seemingly a lot sturdier than his own, two floors over their heads.  
"Yea, I wasn't strong enough to hold into it. The line is made so that I can slow down my own speed to a complete stop with the use of five floors even if I'm falling in a hundred kilometres per hour."  
"I'll get it. You just wait here and I'll be back in a few minutes," Kaito stated as he changed into a dark disguise and vanished out to the street.

Shinichi sighed as he noticed that he'd dropped the small communication set from his ear, forcing him to pull up his mobile while he sank back to the ground, feeling his legs pulse with pain; he needed to get to a hospital and see if he had any bone damage.  
"Dad, where are you?" he wondered as he heard the man answer.  
"I'm on the third floor,"  
"Get out of there. I'm in the north-west alley, and I have to go to the hospital," Shinichi sighed and looked up to the building, knowing that his father would come out a window.  
"Is it serious?" Satoru questioned as he ran towards the windows on the other side.  
"I might have stress fractures," the young thief informed his worrying father, seeing a window open and then how a taskforce member came sliding down with his own grappling hook, so he hung up the call. "I lost the headset," he explained a bit sheepishly while the man stared for a second at the grappling hook that hung from the building as he reeled in his own.  
"How are you?" Satoru asked and began methodically checking his son for more injuries while he listened to the symptoms that Shinichi was describing and found that he was bleeding a bit from his head, "it must've been a bad fall."  
"Yea, it was," he stated and saw how Kaitou KID came down using the grappling hook that he'd seen vanish up into the air minutes before. Satoru pulled out a cane from the edge of Shinichi's mantle as he heard the white-clad thief touch the ground and then spun around.

"I _will_ harm you," Satoru growled with a different voice that carried a more Americanised accent and took a protective stance in front of his son.  
"I want no trouble," KID quickly confessed and dropped his hand as he had reeled in the entire line. "His grappling hook," the white thief turned the gadget around and held it out to the taskforce member with a cane who, he assumed, was an assistant.  
"KID, I haven't introduced you to my assistant. He doesn't like it when I get hurt and he's easily provoked," Shinichi smiled a bit as he saw his father relax and take the grappling hook and then send a glance to the sky.  
"I see, so that's what happened... The winds are strong," Satoru deadpanned, "KID fell off the building and you jumped after. I can't see any other way that you could've gotten hurt from that distance."  
"I said nothing," Shinichi muttered while the taskforce member gave KID an irritated look.  
"Shoo," Satoru glared at the other thief that raised an eyebrow and vanished in a puff of smoke, "he's going to follow us, isn't he?" He turned around and saw his son shake his head.  
"Really? Shoo? That's what you came up with?" Shinichi laughed as his father pulled a coat with a large hood over his head, and then pushed the hat together so that it was flat.  
"The car's waiting just around the other corner," he informed as soon as his wife told him in the headset and pulled up the teenager from the ground to start the strenuous way there, carrying most of his son's weight while holding the arm around his neck.

Shinichi gasped in pain as he was placed in the backseat of a taxi.  
"What happened to the car?" Satoru wondered surprised as he joined his son in the back.  
"I'm not sure," Avaron shrugged as she pulled out to drive her son to the hospital and sent a sorrowful glance to the teenager that was getting help from his father to change to normal clothes, "I forgot where I parked it so I took this one. It was just standing there abandoned."  
"We'll find it in the morning," Satoru suggested while Shinichi rolled his eyes.  
"A car that's parked is not abandoned..." the teenager muttered and carefully shook his head at his parents' antics.

* * *

'_How have you been today?_' Kaito immediately posted on the forum after he watched the two people walk over to a cab, hoping that Night Baron wasn't injured badly, but he received no response until the next day.  
_'I took a tumble down the stairs this morning. I'm fine, just a bit bruised up. Hahaha, I'm so clumsy!'_ Black Rose had posted.  
_'So that's what I heard from your place? You're so loud!'_ the eastern thief wrote, hoping that no news channels had figured out that Night Baron and Kaitou KID were keeping in contact, and Kaito hoped that the organization wouldn't find out and go after his new 'friend', unaware that the person who he was beginning to not-hate was working for them.  
_'Yea, sorry sorry, I didn't wake you, did I? I've got some nice painkillers from the hospital, though, so I can't really complain.'_

* * *

**Answer to guest review: D  
**Aw, thank you! I'm happy that you say that! I hope you're not disappointed by this chapter!

**Answer to guest review: Nika**  
Ooh, they will! ;) And here comes an update!

**Answer to guest review: WWW  
**Thank you! It's great that you like it and I wish you the same!

**Answer to guest review: Guest  
**I'll try! But I promise nothing!


	23. A Clear Message

A/N: Soon it's time for Doctor Who! :D I must avoid Facebook so that I don't get any spoilers. **Damn you**, English kniggits, that gets to watch it before me! *Speaks with an _outrageous_ French accent* You atrocious crock of mouldy pigs trotters! You're nothing but a vile gathering of maggot-infested belly-button fluff! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!  
Gaaah, I need my weekly dose of Doctor Who...

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness,

Shinichi's age: 17  
Uploaded: 2013-05-18  
Chapter rating: T  
Words: 3,600

* * *

**Chap. 23  
A Clear Message**

Yuusaku muttered a bit as his mobile rang and awakened him, hearing how his wife mumbled something incoherent as she too was awakened.  
"Yes," the author slurred in the phone after seeing that it was his proof-reader, "do you know what time it is? Everything before the alarm rings is _too_ early."  
"Yes, Kudou-san, I'm fully aware," Madoka answered and checked the clock on his wall; he'd been up reading all night and didn't really care much for sleep, and the author would get up in a few minutes anyway, "but it's about you latest script. Do you really want to publish it as it is?"  
"What's wrong with it now? If there's some spelling mistake, just correct it if it isn't in the important parts," Yuusaku sighed and rubbed his eyes, realising that the man might change something important if he did, "no, wait. Just tell me what's wrong and we'll go over it around twelve, or whenever you want, you probably didn't sleep in any case."  
"It's just a part that I don't know if it's supposed to be there. It's as if you wrote on another book and a piece of it just happened to end up there... Are you writing something that you're keeping a secret?" his proof-reader asked suspiciously.  
"_What?_ No, I'm not. Read the weird part to me," the man demanded and heard how Madoka cleared his throat.  
"Okay, well, first we are at the crime scene where Night Baron killed the banker that tried to frame him; a great murder by the way, and then suddenly there's a jump in the text, as if it's another book-,"  
"Just read it," Yuusaku interrupted the man, knowing that his proof-reader liked to talk and sometimes derailed and never got to his point.  
"Right, here it is, um, Night Baron is at the crime scene and then leaves through the front door, and then this comes:

_One week, two weeks, three weeks had gone by after he'd gotten to the city, making him almost give up the search. No clues anywhere, until that fateful day when Night Baron discovered the trail. It was almost nonexistent, and the only thing he had to go by was a small flicker on a security tape; clearly a miss from the protector's side. He waited and stayed away, wondering if his short distance was bad; maybe he should leave the city, maybe even the country, claiming to follow the trail. Despite the fear he must induce he paid a visit to the man with white hair; a man that was only middle-age, but even so, his hair had begun turning white in his mid-twenties, judging by the photos on the wall in the hallway. The old man was a scientist and lived next door to a close friend and detective. He had taken in a child, a small girl with a price on her head. Night Baron was very intrigued by the amount, but the target was supposed to be eighteen, not eight, and he had certain standards. He watched his target as she whimpered in her sleep; her hair was still wet from what must've been a very late shower for a small child, and the room smelled of strawberries. She was most likely having a nightmare, or she was developing a fever, but Night Baron couldn't take the risk of moving inside for too long in case she woke up, so he carefully closed the door after he snuck out and returned to the kitchen from where he could see the detective's house.  
"Protect her well from the shadows that hunt her, father," Night Baron whispered and then abandoned his mission, leaving no clues as to the fact that he was ever at that house, so close to his target, except a small signature underneath the coffee machine, telling which date he came by, if it was ever found, and hoped with all his heart that the girl would continue to survive until the shadows had been terminated by light..._

And then you go back to telling the story of how Night Baron passed out through the security gates of the murder scene. It doesn't make sense," Madoka complained and was completely unaware that Yuusaku sat straight as an arrow in his bed.  
"I have to call you back!" he almost yelled as he got up from the bed and threw on some clothes while receiving a tired glance from his wife.

The author ran out of his house, past the gates and then into his friend's house, seeing the photos on the wall and then saw that Haibara was eating breakfast with Agasa as he got to the kitchen.  
"Yuu-kun, is something wrong?"  
"Haibara, do you use shampoo that makes your hair smell of strawberries?" he asked as he ran up to the coffee maker and ignored the question from his friend.  
"Yes, why?" the girl asked worried and saw how Yuusaku took the coffee pot, placed it beside the machine and then tilted the entire thing to look at the bottom.

"I'm sorry, Haibara; I was wrong and you were right," the author sighed as he turned around and leaned on the bench, "Night Baron found you." Yuusaku saw terror pass the child's eyes. "He found you seven weeks ago, and then he came by my house to write a paragraph in my book, saying that he wished me to protect you from the shadows that hunt you. Chivas Regal is a traitor, an ally, and not an enemy, if he wished you dead he could've done it long ago, right underneath my nose."  
"He came by?" Haibara shivered, remembering how kind the thief always looked if she ignored the predatory gleam he had, except towards Gin, if Gin was in the room Night Baron would be cold and distant, almost looking like he was ready to kill someone, "and not reported me in?"  
"What should I do? Meet him and ask him about it? Or let him run with the organization?" Yuusaku yawned despite the fact that his brain was quickly working out scenarios, weighing pros and cons of speaking with Night Baron.  
"If you're honestly asking for advice, and not just talking aloud, I'd say that you leave him; it's safer for a traitor if you have as little contact with him as possible. You could perhaps go to his next heist and try to talk with him without trying to trap him and without anyone knowing," Haibara calmed down and felt as if she was dreaming; Night Baron, the organization's loyal dog, who always executed his missions with perfection, was protecting her.  
"I know what to do," the author smiled amused after a few seconds and chuckled, "he's created so many ways to speak with him that it's ridiculous."

* * *

Shinichi sat on the balcony railing for a while, smiling as he wondered if Kaitou KID would understand the extra message he'd sent with the heist note, but he had been more cryptic than ever since he didn't want Hakuba to figure it out. He watched how a woman passed by the balcony door, but he knew that she wouldn't see him through the thin, red curtains that covered the entire wall where the balcony was; it was light on the inside and dark on the outside after all. He pulled off his mask and prepared himself for flirting; it wasn't actually something he enjoyed, but he was apparently doing it unconsciously to both men and women, according to his way-too-amused parents, and it was entirely their fault for forcing him to train on it so much. With a relaxed pose and a seductive smile he snuck in through the narrow opening and leaned on the doorframe, seeing the woman sit in front of a mirror with strong lights, concentrating on putting on makeup for the party.

"Such a fair lady as yourself doesn't need makeup, not when you look so stunningly beautiful," he murmured in French, making sure to use Night Baron's voice and saw her eyes widen in shock as she spotted him in the mirror before she spun around and accidently toppled over her makeup bag.  
"Claire?" a male voice called out in French from the room next to the bedroom, "is everything alright? Are you done yet?"  
"I'm fine, Henri, I dropped my bag. I'll just be a little bit longer!" Claire answered in French, unable to take her eyes off of the thief. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" the woman continued in a quiet voice and Shinichi saw that she was spellbound as she stood up, and that was something that would always remain a mystery to him; why did women like the 'bad guy'? Sure he wasn't entirely bad and he was known to be a gentleman, but still.

"I've met many people, but I've never seen a woman as beautiful as she's clever. You are the first," Shinichi took a gentle grasp of her hand as she came closer and left an enduring kiss on it while looking into her eyes, "do you know why I'm here?"  
"I've heard that you were silver-tongued, and your mere presence is flattering," Claire smiled and invited herself to invade his personal space by wrapping her arms around his neck, seemingly trying to seduce him, but he had known that she wouldn't be able to resist; he'd seen that she was one of his more enthusiastic fans after all, and she even had a 'deal' with her husband that allowed her to cheat on him with Night Baron, but then again, her husband had a deal of his own with some actress. "Your target is in this building, displayed at the party. You need a disguise."  
"Mhm," Shinichi smiled as he bent closer to her lips so that they were only centimetres apart, "and I don't disguise as women."  
"I'm guessing that you chose us because of our name."

"Oh, why aren't you married to me instead?" he complained with a sigh in French, making the woman restrain a giggle while she blushed at the closeness, "but that's only part of it. It's true that your name attracted me like a moth to a flame, Miss Lupin, but it's not every day that I get the chance to kiss such an endearing woman, if you allow me, of course." Shinichi didn't know if the woman was about to faint or die from joy at his request.  
"Anything for you, my dear Night Baron, I'd be glad to give you one," Claire whispered and made the thief smile seductively while sighing at the strangeness of women in his head, and then closed the distance between their lips, giving her a gentle kiss before he carefully pulled her flush against his chest, attentive in case she would struggle. Kissing her a bit rougher, he pretended that he was feeling hunger for her, even though he felt nothing but a bit awkward, and then held his breath, sensing her arms around his neck relax as she breathed in the colourless gas.  
"Night Baron," she sighed as she fell asleep and Shinichi rolled his eyes, not understanding the fascination everyone seemed to have with kissing. He lifted her up in his arms before he laid her to rest in the bed, tucking her in so that she wouldn't get a cold; at least that would teach her about kissing strange men. Knowing that he would come back after he'd stolen the jewel he placed the gas dispenser beside her pillow, underneath a flake of the cover, so that she would stay asleep and carefully opened it a crack, feeling that a slight current was coming from it and put it on a timer for three hours just to be safe.

"Claire?" Henri banged on the door, clearly getting impatient, and Shinichi opened his mouth to respond, but realised that it was too dangerous; he had been training with his father to be able to speak in women's voices ever since he heard about Kaitou KID's return a year ago, but he wasn't good, "hello?" Shinichi walked up to the door and prepared the can of sleeping gas. He opened the door and saw a shocked expression on the man's face before he caught him as he fell asleep. The thief dragged him into the bedroom and placed him on the bed beside his wife. With a smile Shinichi walked into the hallway, smirking at the fact that it was simple to get a disguise.

He donned the costume in the bathroom, happily seeing that he looked exactly like Henri and tuned his voice to the same French accent and then smiled after he scowled, seeing so that the mask sat as it was supposed to. Henri had more bulk, consisting of muscles and had a more square jaw than Shinichi had and seemed more respecting, he also had an awful temper when it came to doing business, which would allow Shinichi to throw a serious fit if Nakamori even tried to pull his cheek. Smiling the same kind of confident half-smile as Henri did he calmly walked out of the room, dressed for a party; now he would just have to see if KID would join him in a while.

As he spoke with the people on the party he was pleasant and observed his surroundings, seeing that Nakamori was walking around the room, preparing a net over the display case. He'd also caught sight of Hakuba and Yuusaku speaking with each other. Reading their lips he saw that it was about the last few words of his heist note, something neither of them apparently had been able to understand. Shinichi kept his voice low to not disturb others as he was in a complete fury while arguing about a business proposal, a lot of anger which came from the fact that he was stuck in the same room as his biological father, but it was partly reason for why he had chosen Henri as his disguise; it allowed him to let off steam.

* * *

Kaito landed on the balcony, seeing the balcony door stand open and walked inside, finding a couple sleeping. A note was lying on the desk and Kaito read it with a smile.  
_"So you figured it out?  
~ Love NB"_  
The thief snorted at the insult; of course he'd figured it out, it was obvious from their conversations at the heists. After disguising himself as the woman he picked up a small tape recorder hearing her speak on a foreign language with Night Baron, but it was enough to let him know what she sounded like. He yawned as he walked out of the room, suddenly feeling strangely tired. As he got down to the party he looked over the crowds, trying to find his way-too-friendly enemy, but as he watched Henri have a heated argument with another man he suddenly realised someone was standing in front of him. Kaito almost had a heart attack when he diverted his gaze and saw Yuusaku smile at him.  
"May I have this dance, my dear?" the detective wondered in English, knowing that Claire couldn't speak Japanese even though her husband did, and held out his hand, smiling the same smile he always did when he knew what kind of disguise KID had.

"Of course, but I must warn you; my husband has a terrible mood and might harm you," Kaito answered in French-accented English and was dragged out on the dance floor.  
"I'll take my chances," Yuusaku smirked and pulled the thief close so that he could whisper in his ear, "I need you to tell Night Baron that I tipped the coffee machine so I won't come around much. Tell him that I wish that he could trust me more."  
"I'm guessing that you deduced the last line," Kaito whispered in KID's voice, hearing the detective hum, "why don't you just talk to him directly if you know who he is?"  
"Because I can't be seen with him, but I do enjoy reading your conversations. Why a public forum?"  
"You'd have to ask him... He does everything backwards. He even likes eating dinner as breakfast," Kaito informed in a troubled voice and made the other chuckle.

"What happened when Night Baron got injured?" Yuusaku questioned as he pulled away and placed a hand on the thief's cheek, knowing that KID would understand that the gesture was a threat of exposure, but before he had time to get an answer someone cleared their throat just beside them and restrained the author's wrist, making him unable to close his fingers in a way so that he could pinch the magician's cheek.

"May I have my wife?" Shinichi asked as he grabbed hard into the wrist that was touching 'his wife' and gave Yuusaku a genuinely angry glare, having seen the man's threat even though he hadn't heard the question.  
"Sorry, I meant no harm," the detective stated and walked away as he was released, leaving the two thieves, whereas one was holding two glasses of champagne in his left hand.  
"Dear," Shinichi grinned, speaking Japanese, and handed over a glass, seeing how KID gave him a suspicious glance as he took it. "Don't worry, it's just sparkling water with some colouring," the western thief whispered as he snuck an arm around the other's waist to pull him close.  
"That's not my main concern, _Henri_," KID whispered lowly in Japanese and decided to not drink the water, "I just tend to _not_ trust food I'm given by criminals."  
"Aw, I'm hurt," the thief whined and emptied his glass, placing it the table with drinks as they got to it, and bent close to the other to whisper in his ear, "especially after I stopped you from tumbling down the stairs." With a bit of satisfaction Shinichi saw the thief tense from the reminder of plummeting towards the ground and then ate a few appetisers that he stole from a waiter's passing plate while being scrutinised by an unreadable expression.

"Meitantei, gave me a message for you," KID whispered back as Shinichi pulled him out on the dance floor.  
"What was it?"  
"It made no sense, but he said that he wanted you to trust him and that he wouldn't show up as much, because he tipped the coffee machine."  
"Oh? That took some time, I was certain that he'd done it long ago," Shinichi mused as they danced, not noticing how red the other's ears had become, since they were mostly covered by the shoulder-long, brown hair.

Kaito suddenly had very many problems with the way Night Baron was holding him as they danced; he was pushed up against him with a powerful, yet gentle hand that was resting on his lower back, feeling how heat radiated from it and from the other's chest. He could feel every movement of the strong body and smell the other thief's scents, and damn if those weren't delicious. A stray thought that he had no idea where it came from wondered if Night Baron's skin tasted like he smelled, but Kaito quickly beat the thought to a quivering mess. The world suddenly spun around and he was tipped backwards with Night Baron only centimetres from his face.  
"Hun, you seem to be off in your own imagination," the western thief's dark voice washed over him and made his insides tremble from its intensity.  
"Sorry, did you say something?" Kaito forced himself to whisper as Night Baron pulled him up again and made his mind clear of anything but those deeply blue eyes that stared at him, not green like Hakuba believed.  
"I asked if you feel okay; your pulse is racing and you're feeling warm. Do you have a fever?" Kaito blinked at the question; Night Baron had actually noticed all that? He clearly was paying attention to everything, and at that moment Kaito was happy that the room was somewhat darkened, otherwise his possibly dilated pupils would give everything away.  
"Yea, I had one when I left," Kaito quickly excused and threw a glance over the other's shoulder, seeing Hakuba stare at them with narrowed eyes, "Tantei-san is beginning to get suspicious of us."  
"Oh? Is he looking at us?"  
"Yes," the eastern thief whispered as he looked into the other thief's eyes, trying to seem like a couple in love, which wasn't hard for him, since his heart began to beat harder only because Night Baron looked at him, and Kaito wasn't an idiot; he knew exactly what it meant. He had fallen for Night Baron a long time ago and he had fought it with every single drop of will, but it had been futile and now he felt like he was a nervous school girl on a first date, which wasn't good since the other thief clearly wasn't interested despite the flirtatious comments and sentences. Night Baron practically flirted with everybody, and Kaito could feel a dark heat every time he'd watched the other thief flirt with someone at a heist.

"We should kiss," the western thief suddenly suggested after having rotated in the dance so that he could observe the Brit out of the corner of his eyes, making Kaito stare at him wide-eyed; had his brain just made that up? Or did Night Baron actually suggest it?  
"W-what?" he asked and stared in shock, afraid to hope that Night Baron was serious.  
"If we were to kiss, Timetaker would ignore us, since Night Baron and Kaitou KID are enemies and would never kiss each other," the slightly taller man reasoned as he stared into the thief's violet eyes, unable to see that Kaito was blushing profoundly since he had a latex mask.  
"O-okay," the magician whispered nervously and was forced to hold back a giggle as his brain went giddy when Night Baron bent closer.

* * *

**Answer to guest review: WWW**  
Thank you! And I agree, some things are better than school! XD

**Answer to guest review: Nika**  
Yea, I have a schedule! XD Every two to three weeks, and if I update earlier it's a treat. Ooh, yes, it's a heist. Enjoy the small cliffie!


	24. Ring of Thieves

A/N: I'm so sad! Moffat is making me wait for Doctor Who until November! (I knew this was coming) And I've been waiting for Sherlock Holmes forever. I guess that I just want revenge XD

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness,

Shinichi's age: 17  
Uploaded: 2013-05-31  
Chapter rating: T  
Words: 4,400

* * *

**Chap. 24  
Ring of Thieves**

Kaito stared into those calm, warm eyes and was happy that he was wearing a latex mask over his face, otherwise he would've been redder than red, but as he closed his eyes the raging sensations of the thief's scent only intensified, making him dizzy and lightheaded. His body was sending electricity through his entire being wherever they touched and he bathed in the feeling of love as his body anticipated the kiss. His lips trembled a bit as he felt hot air on them, making him want to open his eyes to see the other thief, but he was afraid that he would be caught in the deep ocean of Night Baron's eyes with no way to escape.  
"Oh? He's gone," Night Baron suddenly whispered, millimetres from his lips, enabling Kaito to almost taste the western thief, but then he felt how all the heat vanished as Night Baron pulled away and released the grip he'd had around him. The magician blinked confused and immediately felt the loss of the warmth before he sent an angry glance around the room as disappointment coursed through his veins, seeing that a taskforce member was dragging Hakuba away to check on something. Kaito cursed wildly in his head as he was escorted off the floor, towards a table with real food instead of the appetisers.

He noticed that Night Baron seemed to concentrate most of his attention on the grilled chicken as opposed to any other food while he discussed some obnoxious piece of information with the manager of the hotel and then continued with the price of the work that Henri Lupin apparently was going to do for him. He kept close to Night Baron, not wanting to let him win again and then eyed his surroundings; he knew of all the traps and he had multiple ways out, but he wondered what Night Baron's plan was. Was the other thief aware that the windows were bolted and contained bullet-proof glass?

Kaito yawned a bit and carefully rubbed one of his eyes so that he wouldn't smear the makeup, but as he waited he studied the taskforce members that looked out of place in their cheaper suits compared to the real guests. Some of the officers were also disguised as waiters and guards, and the thief almost wanted to shake his head at their futile attempts of disguising; did they really think that they would be able to fool the world's best phantom thieves with only half-assed disguises? They barely even knew what they were doing.

The heist time closed in and Kaito turned to Night Baron, only to find that Henri was nowhere to be seen. The thief blinked and looked around the room, wondering when the black-clad thief had vanished from his side, but as he waited the last five minutes he watched how the hotel manager was scratching his head, searching for someone.

The lights went out, just like Kaito had planned and he appeared on top of the large glass case which contained crown jewels. He grinned as he glanced around, anticipating Night Baron to tackle him to the ground, but since the other thief didn't show he had to continue.  
"Ladies and Gentlemen!" he called out and made blue, glowing snow begin to fall from the high ceiling, gaining smiles from everyone at the party, even the orchestra that had stopped playing when the lights went out, "it's an honour to crash your party like this!" A confident grin to the inspector made the man activate the pathetic excuse of a trap that Kaito immediately disabled by shooting with his sharp cards, not that Nakamori could put up much more advanced traps, not when the hotel manager knew that his customer's happiness was worth more in monetary flow than the diamond itself.

"My dear audience," Kaito grinned as he pulled out a deck of cards, glancing around for Night Baron and saw that the taskforce were also looking for the other thief, "would you mind if I held a small show?" Dispersed calls came to him, none with a negative answer and he performed a small card trick, making the deck change backs and values before it turned in to a dove; a bird which he then turned into a coin.  
"The police sure are slow today!" he called out in delight and heard an angry yell from Nakamori that then headed for him, followed by the taskforce. With a grin Kaito flicked his wrist as he snapped his fingers when the officers got closer to him by the edges of the crowd that had formed a large circle around him and made the policemen's feet covered in glue. Aas he sent another glance around he became covered in smoke, but before he had time to jump out of it something struck him from behind.

Kaito had time to register Night Baron's mask as they made it through the air in a flurry of pure white and blue-ish black before they crashed into the floor, making the diamond slide away over the floor as the two thieves tumbled over each other and then jumped up.  
"Baron, you're late," the white-clad KID stated, annoyed by the fact that the western thief had made sure that he absorbed most of the force; Kaito did _not_ need babying from Night Baron.  
"Sorry, I had to take care of a snooping bloodhound," the westerner's dark voice explained amused, but with that their conversation was finished and they both ran for the jewel. Night Baron dodged cards and Kaito made sure to dodge the cane that appeared out of nowhere.

With great amusement the guests watched the duel between the two thieves while moving towards the wall to give them as much floor to fight on as possible. Kaito felt how a confident smirk made its way to his lips as Night Baron fell ungracefully to his back after avoiding a kick. The western thief rolled back and got up, but that was when Kaito realised exactly where they were; they had moved towards the diamond and Night Baron had fallen in order to get it without bowing down.  
"No, you don't!" the magician called out and ran into Night Baron's path, seeing that he was trying to get to the window, but the western thief didn't avoid him; he ran straight forward. Kaito dodged the cane that was swung at him and took a step closer, for once happy that Aoko forced him to dodge her crazy mop-wielding, and grabbed into the dark suit. They crashed into the floor once again and Kaito had time to see Night Baron's eyes widen in shock before he lost grip of the westerner's clothes and saw him shoot the grappling hook to a beam above the window. Surprised by his inability to hold on Kaito flew up from the floor, staggered and then fell to all fours, surprised by his body's weakness.

"Night Baron," the British detective's voice carried strong over the floor as he carefully neared the white thief and looked up to the dark one, sensing that the fight had ended at that location, "that window is bolted shut, the doors and vents are sealed and the glass is bullet proof. This room is sealed, and even if you were to disguise we'd find both of you, so surrender quietly."  
"You mean this window? The window that Nakamori himself watched over and then _double-checked_?" Shinichi asked with a grin and pushed on the pane, seeing the entire window, together with the frame, slide out and leave a gaping hole in the wall as it fell outside, but with concern the thief saw how his white-clad foe was sinking further and further towards the ground, fighting to keep his eyes open; Shinichi had seen how the other had accidently grabbed into one of his gas dispersers, "oh, come on KID, don't think I'll fall for that trick!" He caught a pleading gaze from the other and watched how the magician collapsed. With a quick flick of a switch in his pocket the lights flickered off inside the room and Shinichi hastily reeled himself down, picked up the unconscious thief and covered him with his large cape. Knowing that the night was so dark that they would be covered Shinichi brought them up to the window and shot the grappling hook to the railing of the sleeping couple.

A shadow behind the curtain greeted him and Shinichi nodded to the man that appeared from inside the room.  
"What did you do to him?" Satoru's voice came from the second Night Baron and Shinichi smiled a bit awkwardly.  
"I might have accidently put him to sleep, or rather, he accidently put himself to sleep by grabbing into my suit," the teenager answered as he placed the magician down, making sure that he was somewhat comfortable, "are you ready?"  
"I can't possibly express how much I hate your plan," Satoru grumbled a bit and shook his head as his son sent him an annoyed glance, "but yes, I'm ready."  
"Good, wake KID afterwards, and don't get me started on horrible plans," Shinichi shivered as abhorrence coursed through his veins and got rid of his Night Baron-clothes.  
"You're still on about that?" Satoru asked as he watched the white thief sleep, wondering why his son wasn't removing the other thief's disguise to see what Kaitou KID looked like, "it was just a kiss."  
"Just a kiss... Yes, but _I_ had to kiss _you._ That's not okay, and I'm still having nightmares," Shinichi complained and threw his clothes to his father, making sure that he had no Night Baron-related items left.  
"Yea, well, you know that if you hadn't done it we both would've been shot on the spot-,"  
"Let that be a lesson on leaving the Yakuza bosses' wives alone, and don't try to con them again," Shinichi demanded and pulled on his work-clothes.  
"You're not a very good kisser," Satoru snorted amused, hell-bent on torturing his son with the memory since Shinichi's plan obviously was payback for what had happened a week ago, "I thought I taught you better..."  
"Shut up," Shinichi shivered as he finished dressing, "don't remind me of it, and I would never try to kiss to seduce you, just the thought of doing it..."  
"I hope you learnt something from it-,"  
"Stop it!" the teenager hissed and turned his back to the man and the balcony door, "now hit me."  
"I don't wanna," Satoru whined and rolled the cane in his hands.  
"Hit me one time hard or you'll be forced to hit me multiple while I'm fighting you."  
"Fine," the man muttered and raised the weapon, hitting his son at the back of the neck, and watched how the teenager fell to the balcony unconscious, "sorry." Satoru turned his attention to the neck and quickly examined it, seeing that his son would be fine. He pulled out a small capsule and broke it underneath the white-clad thief's nose, chuckling as the young man twitched awake and tried to get away from the scent of ammonia.

"Good morning," Night Baron's voice cut through the haze and Kaito felt an unpleasant shiver go through his body; there was something terribly wrong with the voice. He blinked as he saw the white mask, but beyond the cover, green eyes looked back at him and that made him realise why the voice sounded wrong in his ears.  
"Who the hell are you?" the magician grumbled as the westerner stood up.  
"Night Baron," the man smiled and tilted his head while watching Kaito get up from the ground, "you didn't lose your memory, did you?"  
"No, and you're not Night Baron," Kaito stated and then saw the unconscious stranger, "what happened?"  
"Oh, yea, he's the bloodhound that was snooping around. I had to deal with him, but it figures that you would realise that I wasn't Night Baron," the imposter chuckled, "I'm his assistant, and Night Baron left with the diamond a few minutes ago, telling me to wake you after he was gone. See ya'." The faux thief shot the grappling hook to a helicopter and then vanished into it.

"Two assistants," Kaito grumbled as he watched the helicopter shine a light on top of the building, guarding the roof, and then realised that Night Baron must've used a helicopter the first heist, otherwise he had no idea if the pilot would've crashed and killed them or just sliced him into a million pieces with the blades. With a sigh he pulled out a second mantle from his suit and placed it over the young man, seemingly a teenager.  
"Nozaki Shinichi, huh? 25 years old," the magician stated as he took a quick look in the wallet, seeing a business card and he curiously pulled it out, "detective? Well that's great." Kaito wrote a small sentence on the card and vanished off of the balcony after placing the wallet back in the pocket, unhappy that Night Baron had outsmarted him again and he quietly wondered if it was his assistant that had drugged him or if it was Night Baron; the eyes beyond the mask were too dark to distinguish if they were blue or green so it could've been either of them in the room during the fight, and it was hard to distinguish their voices from each other.

* * *

"Nozaki-kun!" the voice of the manager called out as the teenager opened his eyes with a groan, feeling his head pound in an unpleasant way while he carefully supervised the location, seeing that he was in an empty room, laid on the bed with a doctor smiling down at him.  
"I'm sorry, Matsuda-sama, I chased Night Baron out to the balcony and then was struck from behind," Shinichi replied weakly, pretending that he felt worse than he actually was, "I thought that if I caught him you'd forgive me for dropping that dish a few days ago." The teenager had quickly realised that the manager loved when one of his employees were unconditionally loyal, a bit dense and seemingly craving for his attention.  
"Aw, silly you," Matsuda chuckled lovingly, as if he was talking to a small child, "you don't have to keep asking for forgiveness, but now we know where Night Baron have been. We can make money off of that room."  
"I'm so happy that you'll be able to do that," Shinichi forced forward a blush and smiled affectionately as the man stroke his hair.  
"Right, but I needed your Spanish-knowledge downstairs, so take a few minutes, and I'll entertain Rodriguez while you take a few breaths," Matsuda smiled and then got up, ignoring the doctor's protests about Shinichi needing rest and left the room. The teenager smiled a bit at the woman as they spoke and then ensured her that he was getting rest once he got home, but as he walked down the stairs towards the ball room he caressed his neck, happy that his father hadn't hesitated, otherwise he would've been forced to fight, and who knew what kind of damage he could've taken then.

"Nozaki-kun!" a voice called out and made the teenager stop by the reception desk, freezing as he recognised the voice, but he turned around with a smile.  
"Yes, what can I do for you?" Shinichi asked as Yuusaku walked up to him, slightly panting from running after him.  
"I had a few questions about what happened with Night Baron," the author stated with a smile as he studied the young man in front of him, "would you be opposed to answering them?"  
"No, of course not," Shinichi's smile widened, hiding the fact that he could feel hate burning in his throat, "but I'm afraid that I won't be of much use; I just chased him through the room and out to the balcony before I was struck from behind. Lupin had ordered the bed to be made with rose pedals over and around the room for the evening. I was also supposed to prepare some candles for them and light a log in the fireplace. Could it be possible to speak while we walk? There's somewhere I have to be."  
"Yes," Yuusaku smiled and allowed them both to begin walking with Shinichi leading by only a few centimetres, "what's your name?"  
"Nozaki Shinichi, but you probably know that, seeing as I've been working with Megure from time to time," the teenager answered with a sneer, a sneer which he quickly forced into a pleasant mask.  
"Yes, I know. Megure-keibu told me that you were brilliant, but yet Matsuda-kun stated that you were incredibly dense, how come?" Yuusaku realised that he struck a nerve as the hotel worker stopped and turned to him, pulling him behind a pillar inside the large ball room.  
"Okay, Matsuda likes a person that makes him appear better, and being dense and clumsy is just something I have to do to keep this job. This job is one of the things that puts food on my table. I only work half-time here, because I want to establish a name as a detective before opening an agency. Please don't expose me," Shinichi begged even though he'd gotten used to working for Matsuda and didn't really care if he kept the job now that the heist was finished, but he would have to mess up something with a customer to get fired eventually.  
"Don't worry, I won't," the author smiled and watched how the young man glanced to the manager that was getting by on broken, heavily Japanese-accented English, "how old are you?"  
"25, I'll be 26 in August," Shinichi answered as he looked into his biological father's eyes, seeing a sudden stab of sadness in them before it was gone.  
"Right," the man cleared his throat, "but if you wanted to be a detective, why haven't you come scouting for cases at the police station like so many others?"  
"Megure made it clear to me that he didn't want any help; he had the Detective of the East after all, and lately corpses have had a tendency to fall right by my feet," Shinichi stated nervously, hoping that the man wouldn't dig deeper into his background.  
"Yea, I've heard, you're the Cursed Detective," Yuusaku shook his head at the name and then heard the manager's voice saying the young man's name as he came into view from behind the pillar.

"Matsuda-sama!" Shinichi squeaked and immediately fired off excuses of how horrible a worker he was and that he didn't even deserve to be walking inside such a high standard hotel like Matsuda's.  
"Nozaki-kun, enough," the manager raised an eyebrow at the detective, silently demanding an explanation.  
"I'm sorry, Matsuda-kun was the one who wouldn't let Nozaki-kun go back to his duties; I had a few questions about Night Baron," Yuusaku excused the young detective and then grabbed into Shinichi's arm, "one last thing, Nozaki-kun, do you have a phone number that I can call if I have any follow-up questions."  
"Y-Yes, of course," the thief stated, immediately back in the role of the humble worker, and pulled out his wallet. With a gasp he dropped the six cards that he carried with him and then quickly picked them up, seeing that one of them held a KID-doodle.

"_You looked cold, so I gave you my mantle to keep you warm,  
Stay healthy, my dear Tantei-kun,  
~Kaitou KID,"_ Shinichi read and felt how the man that sold him read over his shoulder, "KID gave me his mantle? When?"  
"Nakamori-keibu took it as evidence," Yuusaku informed with a small smile, seeing that the teenager got a disappointed look on his face.  
"My number is on this card," Shinichi stated quickly, as if he suddenly had remembered that he was supposed to give his number to the author in the first place, and almost threw a card at the man before he quickly placed himself beside the manager like a faithful dog.  
"Thank you," Yuusaku had time to say before the young man was escorted away, and he still had many questions left, but they would have to wait until they met again.

* * *

"Yukiko," the author hugged his wife as he was slicing vegetables for tomorrows bentos, "I think I've found Shinichi."  
"Not this again," the woman sighed as she looked around the kitchen despite knowing that her daughter, Minori, was out in the garden with Haibara; she didn't want their daughter to feel as if Shinichi meant more to them than she did, "what about the last times you thought you found him?"  
"Then I was grasping at straws because of hope, but whenever I look at Nozaki-kun I can only see our son, and h-,"  
"Don't Yuu-chan, just don't," Yukiko interrupted the man as she turned around and cupped his face with her hands, "remember the last times. You're not a detective, you never were, not really; you're a storyteller, a person that fills in things that are missing. It's what you're extremely good at, but my heart breaks every time your hope is torn asunder, so just assume that this Nozaki-person isn't Shinichi, and don't fill in any information you don't have. No theorising on your own, only gather evidence if you have to, but remember that it's almost impossible that it's Shinichi."  
"I know, but I taught him to survive on his own, and I can't just give up hope," Yuusaku whispered and grabbed into his wife's hands that rested on his cheeks, smiling sadly.  
"I know you did, and I'm not giving up hope either," Yukiko stated with a sigh, "but don't hope too much."  
"I know," the author smiled as he pulled up his phone and opened a picture of Nozaki that he'd taken just after he'd carried the unconscious man inside.  
"No," Yukiko gasped as she saw it, "he looks just like Shinichi."  
"And his name _is_ Shinichi, Nozaki Shinichi, and the only inconsistency that I've found so far is that he's 25,"  
"25?" Yukiko gave her husband a glance, "that's older than the last five people."  
"But easily explainable; either his parents never told him how old he was and just guessed, or he grew up alone on the street, not knowing exactly, but either way, he would've been forced to fake his identity and his fingerprints," Yuusaku theorised aloud, like he did often when writing books, "according to the database he's the son of Akihiro and Emiko Nozaki. He grew up in Yokohama and they moved to Tokyo a few months ago. I've run his fingerprints and they weren't a match, but Nozaki's smart so he could very well have fooled me."  
"Yuu-chan," Yukiko stated loudly, interrupting the man's thoughts, "you're not gathering information; you're making up a story again. If you've run his fingerprints then it's probably someone who looks like Shinichi."  
"I know, but I just need to get a saliva sample from him-,"  
"Do you remember what happened last time, with Kaito-kun, Toichi-sensei's son, who's friends with Nakamori-keibu's daughter? You freaked the poor boy out, and all you'd had to do was ask me; I met him when he was small."  
"Yes, I'll be discreet this time; he will never knew that I took one, and if he isn't Shinichi, then we'll pretend like it never happened," Yuusaku reasoned and made the woman shake her head. "Oh, and one more thing," the author sent a glance to the food in the frying pan, "it's burning."  
"Son of a-," Yukiko swore and let the rest of the sentence die into a low muttering as she pulled the pan off the stove, "this is your fault..."

* * *

Shinichi pouted at his mother that was sitting in the couch and looked pathetic as he walked through the door, and she immediately knew what her son was up to.  
"Mom," the teenager complained as he threw his jacket over the back of a chair, thinking that his father was out, "dad hit me unnecessarily hard!"  
"Oi! Don't blame me for your plan!" Satoru piped up his head over the edge of the piece of furniture as he sat up on the couch, showing Shinichi that he'd been lying there, "don't think I don't know what you're trying! And it won't work!"  
"_Mom_, dad is mean!" her son continued the playfully childish banter for a while and Avaron had to force back her wish to laugh at them both.

"Aw, Shinichi, I know," the woman gushed and patted the empty seat beside herself, "come here, my brave little warrior, and I'll take care of your neck." Shinichi sighed contently as Avaron massaged his sore neck with experienced hands.  
"Thanks mom," the teenager smiled and made Satoru pout as he lay down again with his head in his wife's lap.  
"I want a massage too!" the man whined, "it's not fair!"  
"Aw, of course it is," Avaron cackled a bit evilly, "you got to kiss Shinichi after all."  
"Dad! Why did you tell her?" Shinichi squeaked and blushed.  
"Since when do we have secrets?" Satoru asked confused and saw his son raise an eyebrow as a smile made its way to his lips.  
"Ever since _that thing_ happened, you know, _the thing_ that I wasn't supposed to mention to mom," Shinichi grinned and Satoru ransacked though his memories without finding what his son was talking about.  
"What thing?" Avaron asked curiously and sent glances from one person to the other.  
"Oh, it was... Hmm, _a man-thing_, and mom as a woman wouldn't understand," Shinichi hinted, waiting for his father to realise what he was talking about.  
"Ooh... Oh no, _that thing_," Satoru hissed, already knowing that his son was going to tell on him.  
"Well, now I'm curious," Avaron grinned.  
"You know the large scale boat crash that happened with the cruise terminals and a cargo ship at the New York Harbour a few years ago. Yea, that was totally dad's fault," Shinichi revealed quickly and made the man slap his face in embarrassment.  
"Ooh, so the self-proclaimed pirate of the seven seas can even control a cargo ship without crashing?" Avaron laughed heartedly at the revelation and saw how her husband childishly kicked his legs in frustration.  
"He was going to teach me how to drive it, but he couldn't even drive it himself!" Shinichi laughed at the memory, even if he'd at the time had been terrified, "after that I asked you to teach me!"

* * *

A/N: Minori – truth (Shinichi's name is written with the kanjis 'new' and 'one' in DC, but can be made with the kanji for 'truth'. Which is apparently some kind of joke that I haven't gotten jet)

Since Shinichi was brought up on western customs he says "Megure" and "Matsuda" instead of "Megure-keibu" and "Matsuda-sama" as long as he isn't speaking with them directly. This is seen as very arrogant since he's neither superior nor close to them (according to what I've heard, so do correct me if I'm wrong).  
Secondly: Shinichi completely ignored the whole "Business card etiquette" when he gave Yuusaku his card. (You can check it out on Youtube)

* * *

**Answer to guest review: Miss Sky**  
Yes, I am an evil person! And I demand cookies! I will hold the next chapter hostage until I get cookies! Cookies are for evil people!

**Answer to guest review: Nika**  
Because I want you to endure as much pain as I possibly can give you through a text! Mouahahaha!

**Answer to guest review: WWW**  
Well, since Yuusaku is the creator of Night Baron, he is also the father of Night Baron, just like Toichi called Shinichi his older brother in DC; Yuusaku named Kaitou KID and therefore became his father, even though they have no relation to each other in blood. ;) But the fact that Shinichi says 'father' in the text is just because he can, without getting the man suspicious as to what he's talking about.

**Answer to guest review: ami-chan**  
Yes, because I'm an evil person that derives giggles from doing evil things like that XD  
Yea, I imagine that Shinichi placed the text a few pages back so that Yuusaku wouldn't discover it immediately.

**Answer to guest review: D  
**Both... Both are good... Wahahaha! Yes, I am.  
I forgot to answer to your review on chap. 5 in 'In the Footsteps of Others' so I have answered it now ^^'' Sorry!

**Answer to guest review: Unbelievable**  
Yes, and Shinichi's denseness allows me to be evil :D  
Oh? And I have to rewrite a couple of chapters to erase a few mistakes. I haven't gotten to it yet *pout*


	25. Father Dear

A/N: So I was planning on uploading this before I went to work (yeay, summer job!) so that I would have something to look forward to when I came home. I was too tired to get up so I didn't have time to uploade it, but I'll be going to bed now, so see ya' tomorrow!

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness,

Shinichi's age: 17  
Uploaded: 2013-06-15  
Chapter rating: T  
Words: 3,900

* * *

**Chap. 25  
Father Dear**

Kaito stared straight into the board at school with an empty expression and from time to time let out a small sigh; he was so disappointed that he didn't know what to do of himself, other than relive the torture of almost kissing the western thief. He tried to ignore it, but that only worked for short amounts of time, and he had less control of his mind than he wanted to admit. However, his brain seemed to enjoy the feeling and trying to predict how Night Baron's lips felt; were they soft? Hard? How did Night Baron kiss? Roughly? Demanding? Sweet? Carefully? What would Night Baron taste like? Would they only have kissed with their lips or would he use tongue? What would it be like to have Night Baron explore his body with his tongue? Feeling it moving down his chest, to his navel, dipping into it, and continuing downwards-.

The magician made a strange, half-strangled squeak and then slammed his head into the bench in order to stop his mind from travelling to the wrong place; his hormonal teenager body was involved in a mutiny against him, and he didn't like it. The sudden movement made the entire class freeze and after a few seconds of staring and seeing no movement from the magician the teacher retook most of the attention as she continued her chemistry lesson, deciding to ignore the prankster as long as he wasn't bothering anyone.

"Kuroba, may I ask you a question?" the voice of the blonde detective wondered as he sat down beside him during the break and Kaito decided to just wait for him to continue; the Brit didn't care if he was allowed to ask questions or not, he would just do it, and he was beginning to become just as annoying as Akako, "are you asleep?"  
"No," the thief groaned irritated, knowing that the detective would start poking him if he didn't answer, "go away, you annoying, tea-gurgling piece of dust-eating, western civilisation."  
"Good, have you heard that Night Baron was arrested this morning?" the Brit wondered smugly and made the thief stare at his classmate with slight panic.  
"No, that can't be true!" Kaito exclaimed and took up his phone, noticing how Hakuba studied it, unable to know that the Brit was beginning to see a pattern as he thoughtfully watched how the thief opened the browser that already had the heist on it. He backed to the newspaper's front page before he scrolled down and opened the heist again, glaring as he turned his head to the Brit, "I hate you."  
"I know," Hakuba smirked as the thief realised that he had lied about the arrest, since it would be front page news, "and there's nothing you can do about that."  
"Safe weeks," Kaito muttered and sighed as he sent a glance to the picture of Night Baron and himself; it was a perfectly taken picture that made both of the phantom thieves seem remarkable. Night Baron had a card imbedded into his cane while Kaito was blocking his attack with the card gun. Their mantles were flying and Kaito had a perfectly smiling poker face in place.

"Did you buy a new phone, or did you just change the case?" Hakuba wondered and watched how the metallic dark-blue colour was shining slightly in the sunlight that fell in through the window as the thief moved it and then covered it protectively with one of his hands while shrugging nonchalantly, "I remember that your phone was white before. Are you changing from a KID-supporter to a Night Baron-supporter?"  
"Never," Kaito grinned as they entered an area of conversation that he was used to, "I just happened to like the shine this one had."  
"Yes, shiny objects usually attracts ravens and ravens are known for stealing whatever they fancy," Hakuba snorted amused and then stood up, indicating to Kaito that the interrogation for that day was over, but instead of going back to his own seat the detective rounded the bench so that he stood in front of the thief.  
"Your ritual has changed; do you think that one half of my face will tell you that I'm a thief while the other says that I'm not, and just just happen to sit on the side that says that I'm not?" Kaito grinned and chuckled amused, but before he had time to react Hakuba held his jaw in a strong grip and forced the magician to look into his eyes while placing the middle finger against his artery, taking his pulse.  
"You looked into his eyes and placed your arms around his neck while he bent down to your lips," the Brit whispered closely, studying the magician's eyes that widened in surprise as his pupils dilated and felt how the pulse quickened at the reminder of what had happened at the heist, confirming that Kaitou KID had fallen for his western counterpart, "did Night Baron actually kiss you?" Without a warning the magician exploded and Hakuba ended up on his back from the force, feeling the bench topple over him, and as he heard shocked screams he decided to wait for the smoke to clear before moving.

"_BaKaito!"_ Aoko roared while Saguru got up from the floor, watching how it appeared like a small bomb had gone off in the room and covered it completely in pink dust while the chairs and benches now were lying on the floor, just like all the students.  
"Hakuba-kun, what did you do to make him explode?" Keiko wondered and began to laugh as she freed herself from a pile of chairs in the back of the room.  
"I just asked him what he thought of the fan-pairing between his idol and Night Baron," the Brit sighed as he looked around, "I guess he didn't take it well..."

* * *

Kaito stared at the message he'd written in his phone and drank a cup of hot chocolate before sending the question.  
_'What did the last day mean?'_ the magician waited for a minute, knowing that the other would understand and then refreshed the page, seeing a reply; Night Baron was fast at answering lately, as if he was guarding the forum at all times.  
_'I'm afraid that I don't know what you're talking about.'_  
_'Liar... Was that a date? As an actual date? Because I can't see it as anything else.'  
'What? Oh no! I'm so sorry! My roommate is always telling me that I'm doing things like that! I didn't mean to freak you out. I just thought that it would be a funny thing to do, and I'm terribly sorry that I'm an idiot... How's the fever?'_ Kaito read the reply and felt his heart sink in his chest; of course Night Baron would be an oblivious idiot when it came to things like love, so in other words the westerner probably had all the evidence that Kaitou KID was in love with him, but was unable to put it together. Kaito's luck must've been used up after the organisation's many assassination attempts; that's the only reason that he would fall in love with an idiot.  
_'It's gone. So what happened was nothing? I thought you were even going to kiss me.'  
'Sorry, the kiss was just to mess with your noisy neighbour's head.'  
'Why do you do things like that?'_ Kaito finished his chocolate and sighed as he stared at the conversation they'd had for weeks.

"Girl problems?" a waitress wondered curiously and placed a second cup of hot chocolate in front of him, making him look at it confused.  
"Yea, you could say that," Kaito smiled a bit at the woman, knowing her well enough since he was a regular, "but I haven't ordered this."  
"It's on the house," Maiko beamed at him and leaned down so that they could speak a little lower, "it's heartbreaking to see you so sad, Kaito-kun. If there's anything that I can help you with, don't hesitate to ask."  
"Actually, what do you do when the person you're in love with doesn't realise that you like them in that way, despite the fact of having all the evidence, and has an ability to pretty much flirt with anything that moves?" the thief wondered and pushed his empty cup to the waitress, allowing her to take it while he wrapped his hands around the warm surface of the new cup and muttered under his breath, "or things that doesn't move; a wall for example, or a mirror? Definitely a mirror... And a lamp; I can see that."_  
_"Ooh, that's a hard one," Maiko hummed as she thought it over, trying to not smile as she'd heard the magician's muttering, "I guess that being direct is the only way to go, if she's just that oblivious, but then again, I'm sure that you'll figure something out; you're the person that I think can woo any girl if you put your mind to it, right?"  
"Yea, but this is complicated, and you might be right. If I put my mind to it..." Kaito let his words die out as he fell back into his thoughts; he wouldn't destroy the fragile friendship that they had built up, so he would just ignore his feelings since they were bound to die out eventually.  
_'I don't know.'_ the magician read in his phone as he refreshed the page, sighing irritated at the fact that he was in love; things would be so much more simple if he wasn't.

* * *

Shinichi smiled a bit awkwardly at the author as he left the restroom, seeing the man outside, certain that he had been waiting there and just pretended that he came walking through the corridor; Shinichi had tried to avoid him, but apparently that was impossible now that they'd met, and as if that wasn't enough Yuusaku seemed intent on getting some kind of DNA from him too. The detective-and-thief had long ago learnt how to not leave evidence here and there so he immediately saw that the man was following him around and poking at things he'd used; he was a thief after all, and keeping an eye open was something that he was forced to do, since leaving evidence would be the same as a death sentence, especially if it got out that he was Night Baron. The organisation would hunt him down and kill him if they knew that he wasn't being honest with them, especially since they knew that he could disappear from the surface of the planet and never come within their black-clad grasp. They were always trying to keep one step ahead of him, but he would make sure that he thought far ahead of them, leaving them struggling to keep up.

If Shinichi drank coffee at the station while being handed a case he would always clean the cup and place it back in the cupboard, unless he drank from his water bottle; a small bottle that he kept in his inner pocket to make sure that he never lost it. He almost always wore gloves or had on the fake fingerprints, and if he didn't he made sure to only touch surfaces with the back of his fingers or brush the fingerprints out with the lower part of his thumb. He knew that the author had most likely already taken a hair from him, but hair-analysis was always inconclusive, and Shinichi knew that Yuusaku needed saliva, which was something he wouldn't provide willingly.

He met his old friend at the station and was questioned about what had happened on the balcony, but as Shinichi tried to befriend Saguru the detective turned out to have hardened his heart. The thief tried every conversation topic, but the Brit didn't get hooked on anything and only asked questions that were relevant to his investigation. Shinichi wasn't used to failure, especially not when he tried to befriend or flirt with someone, and he knew what the detective liked, so he couldn't for the world understand what was going on when Saguru left without caring about his attempts to strike up a conversation. The thief frowned at his old friend's back as it vanished into the corridor, determined to befriend him again, but this time he wouldn't kill off his identity. For a long while Shinichi pondered over his failure as he looked over a cold case; he'd even tempted the Brit with everything he could think of. If Saguru wanted he could've continued speaking about Sherlock Holmes, music, tea, biscuits, London, Japan, languages, heck, without saying it randomly Shinichi had even managed to bring up that his mother liked strawberry milkshakes; the Brit's favourite. Never before had he failed so miserably.

"Something's on your mind?" a voice asked and Shinichi felt how his thoughts were yanked back to reality while he felt a burn in his throat, "you've been reading the same line for over five minutes."  
"Sorry," the thief smiled a bit tiredly at the author and continued his lie, "I haven't been sleeping well lately so my thoughts tend to wander."  
"Something you want to talk about?" Yuusaku wondered as he placed a cup of coffee in front of the younger detective and sat down to guard it.  
"I'm sorry, I can't drink coffee right now. I've already drunken one too many today. I'll get a severe stomach pain if I drink one more," Shinichi excused himself and seemingly absentmindedly used the outer part of his hand to push the cup away so to not get his prints on it, "I was just now thinking about that blonde detective, Hakuba Saguru. He's not from Japan, is he?" Shinichi looked quizzically at the author that smiled.  
"He grew up in England, but his father is the Superintendent General of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department."  
"Oh?" Shinichi blinked at the new information as he'd never met his old friend's father or knew what he did, but he'd heard that they met up on occasion during birthdays, summers and holidays like Christmas. From what the thief had gathered before, in England, the relationship Saguru had with his father was that of a-stranger-that-he-sometimes-lived-with. They were friendly, but Saguru was mostly uncomfortable and tense in the man's company since they didn't meet that often, and he didn't know how to act around him. "I thought foreigners were loud and talkative..." the thief looked to where the blonde detective had gone not long ago, "but he's the exact opposite."  
"Yea, he doesn't really fit the stereotype," Yuusaku agreed and sent a glance to the cup. If the younger detective had drunken from it he would've taken the cup, but now he had failed again; why was it so hard to get a little DNA? "I don't think that he's interested in making friends at the station. He comes here and is professional, and most officers treat him like a superior because of his father. Anyone who knows their place would never try to befriend him. You're the first to even try." Thinking that he was going to push the other detective to surprise and shock to maybe get some information out of him Yuusaku smiled, but the reaction he got was not what he expected, and didn't fit with the open-hearted and friendly character that Shinichi had displayed all along. The author thought that the reaction would be surprise and interest, but he was instead faced with a complete shutdown.

"So you _were_ watching me..." Shinichi's eyebrow twitched and he didn't look amused as he glared at the man, already completely aware that he was, "I didn't know whether to label what you were doing as coincidence or just plain stalking. I've seen that you've been following me around, and I do not appreciate that. I don't know what you are after and I do not know if I should be concerned or afraid. Which is why I would never touch a cup that you've handed me," the thief stated truthfully, hoping that Yuusaku would be too embarrassed by being caught so that he would give up.  
"Yes, it's true. I was stalking you," Yuusaku confessed and drank from his own cup, seemingly unfazed with the fact that he was doing something illegal, "do you want me to stop?"  
"Yes," Shinichi answered, surprised by the directness of the man.  
"Do you know about my son?"  
"I'm going to venture a guess and say that probably everyone in this station knows about your son's kidnapping, and I know because I've been following your books for a long time, and it was all over the news," Shinichi's voice grew understanding even though his eyes remained hard, trying to separate himself from the situation so that it wouldn't feel as personal, "you're one of those who can't let go, aren't you?"  
"My son is out there, and I won't rest until I find him."  
"What does this have to do with you following me?"  
"Give me a saliva sample," Yuusaku demanded straight forward what Shinichi knew was coming.  
"No."  
"So you have something to hide?" the author narrowed his eyes and made the teenager angry, but Shinichi forced it down.  
"No, I don't have anything to hide, but if you're continuing this way you might lose your family. I've seen it happen in Yokohama. A woman refused to accept that her youngest child had vanished, and _forgot_ that she had a five-year-old daughter that needed her. Since the woman had left her job and had so many that were helping her she simply forgot that she left her daughter in the flat while the husband was forced to work double to support all of them. Had she been there the five-year-old wouldn't have accidently eaten poison, but she wasn't, as she was too occupied with her missing child. I won't give you my DNA. I will not cooperate, and I will refuse to aid you like so many aided that woman whose daughter died," Shinichi gave the man a scrutinising stare, seeing him look back with determination, "move on."  
"You don't understan-,"  
"It's impossible for me to understand, since I don't have any kids, but let's say that he's alive. What is it that says that he remembers you? What if he's living his life with another family, somewhere else, maybe even another continent; are you going to search the world, house by house, city by city, country by country?" Yuusaku opened his mouth to respond, but before he could he was interrupted.

"Kudou!" a gruff voice called out and made both the thief and author stare at inspector Nakamori that was looking into the office area, "KID sent out another heist note! Those damn thieves are driving me insane! New heist notes almost every day!"  
"Thank you for the coffee. It was delicious," Shinichi smiled and the author got up from the chair with a sigh.  
"See you around," Yuusaku stated politely, but the thief could still discern annoyance in his eyes and knew that the man wouldn't give up; he might even become more resilient.  
"Good luck," the thief stated and went back to his case, but as soon as Yuusaku had left the area he pulled up his phone to read the heist note in the newspapers.

* * *

It was the tenth heist that they had officially had and Night Baron was losing for the first time, or that was what it appeared to happen in Shinichi's eyes, while it looked like it was going to become a draw in everybody else's. For some reason he was very clumsy, not that anyone other than him noticed, and he was easily distracted. He had been holding into the jewel and had been running when his instincts told him to stop, and as he had learnt to trust his instincts he stopped and stared around, looking for a trap that might've alerted him subconsciously, but the only thing he saw was the view out the windows. With a small smile he looked up towards the sky, seeing the new moon and the millions of stars gleam on the velvet sky, and far below him there lay a city clad in lights. Shinichi hadn't even noticed that KID had caught up to him and stolen the diamond while he was staring out the window, not until the thief alerted him.

"Night Baron!" KID's amused voice called out, "you're about to get caught!" Shinichi had taken quick looks around himself and seen that the Brit was heading for him. With ease the thief avoided Saguru's attempt of catching him and then pinned the detective against the window with his arms behind his back, unaware that he made Kaitou KID jealous of the closeness.  
"You know, Timetaker," Shinichi mused in English in Night Baron's voice, "even though you came here to get to know your father better I can kind of understand if one were to go here just for a view like this."  
"Don't pretend like you know the first thing about me!" the Brit called out as he struggled and Shinichi moved his leg just before the detective tried kicking him.  
"Ooh, but I do know about you. Tell Kakapo I said hi," the western thief grinned as he hid the gun from his eastern foe and shot a soundless shot into the Brit's arm.  
"Damn needl-," the Brit's sentence ended in a hiss as he fell asleep and Shinichi carefully placed him on the floor.  
"Nighty night, Timetaker," he smiled as he stroke the arm, removing the needle and then looked up to see that KID was still standing in the other end of the corridor, "why haven't you left?"  
"What kind of gentleman would I be then?" the white thief countered with an amused grin, "but the view from up here is remarkable, isn't it."  
"It sure is," Shinichi agreed as he looked out the window again, seeing in the corner of his eyes that the magician was nearing him, until they stood beside each other, "it's something special with all cities. Every place is different, and yet the same. Cities are like seas of lights, always moving and changing, but I went out once, climbing a mountain in Alaska. I never went to the peak. The peak wasn't important; it was the view. Nearest was the snow-covered mountain side, further out a field of white where elk ventured past, just outside the forest. A bit further away, in the middle of the next forest, there was a frozen lake, and in the far distance the mountains. It was all glistering in white as the snow reflected the sunlight, but as the sun went down and night came I thought that the landscape was going to be black, a black nothingness, but I was wrong. A full moon rose and the landscape below me was covered by silvery shadows. Everything was still and calm, and I've never realised how much sound there is in the city until I was sitting up there on that mountain cliff, outside of my tent, watching how strong northern lights danced across the sky."

A chuckle brought Shinichi out of his musings and made him look at his foe, wondering what he was laughing at.  
"I think that I've got you pinned down, and then you do or say something that I'd never suspect," KID smirked and then dialled down his smile so that it became peaceful, "I've never seen northern lights. What are they like?"  
"Light. Green, blue, orange, red, yellow. Mostly green. It's like a calm fire burning, as if we are living in an ocean and someone just dragged something across the surface," the thief described with a smile and then interrupted the moment of peace by tackling the magician and stealing the jewel from his inner pocket, knowing that the one in his hand was a fake.  
"Cheating!" the white-clad thief called out and ran after.  
"I'm not the one claiming to be a gentleman!" Shinichi called back with an amused smile and entered the stairs, jumping on the wall as there was a barrier where most stairs were open.

* * *

A/N: Kaito calls Saguru for 'dust-eating' which is a reference to the dry biscuits that English people are famous for eating. I don't know if they have a particular name (if you're English, tell me), but it's like eating hardened flour. I love them, but that doesn't actually say anything, since I've been longing for my delicious surströmming all year (fermented herring/"rotten fish")

* * *

**Answer to guest review: Guest**  
Yea, my brain is hurting from knowing that bad pun. (Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop)  
Only one truth prevails  
Only Shinichi prevails (Shinichi – read as 'one truth')  
Make it stop burning my brain!

**Answer to guest review: WWW**  
Thank you, I'm happy that you liked it, and I hope that this one wasn't disappointing ;)  
I wish you the same :D

**Answer to guest review: Kya**  
Hahaha, thank you. I don't envy myself either. I really should rewrite chapters since I think that are weirdly written, but I don't like rewriting things XD


	26. Your Own Kind

A/N: The chapter became a bit shorter than what I planned, but I did more research than normally, so hope that you enjoy! ;)

Sorry, but I'm stuck on 'In the Footsteps of Others'

Warnings:  
Strange English, OOCness,

Shinichi's age: 17  
Uploaded: 2013-06-30  
Chapter rating: T  
Words: 3,000

* * *

**Chap. 26  
Your Own Kind**

Shinichi sighed as he watched the top of the building next to him where Snake stood a few metres below him, smoking as usual, and the thief backed into the darkness between an air vent and the wall of the staircase. He was certain that he'd lost Kaitou KID half an hour ago and he mused over the bad heist-performance while he regained his breath, but as he heard a scraping sound, followed by heavy breathing, his eyes widened. Shinichi sat still as he assumed that the white-clad thief would look around, but then saw in horror how KID came running into his view and jumped down to the lower roof with the murderer.  
"KID!" Snake called out and Shinichi jumped to his feet. As he ran to the edge he had time to see the organisation member fire on his white-clad foe, who was running towards the edge, but the thief's upper arm was coloured with a growing, red stain. The shots echoed across the roof and the magician disappeared over the edge while Snake ran after him. With a low growl Shinichi jumped down soundlessly, seeing that Snake was bending over the edge, trying to see where his target had gone.

"It would be a shame if someone pushed you over," Shinichi stated in an icy voice as he grabbed hard into the man's jacket and pushed him forward, making him lose balance so that it only was Shinichi's grip that kept him from falling over.  
"Night Baron," the member gasped and looked over his shoulder, making Shinichi pull him back to safety; threatening members that weren't his superiors was something he was forced to do, but this time he was actually angry and he could see fear in Snake's eyes as he held out the diamond to him.  
"This will be the last time I'm forced to deal with you," the older diamond thief growled defiantly, unwilling to show in his speech that Night Baron frightened him, and placed the gun back in his inner pocket, "from now on you will be delivering diamonds to Whisky, to this address." The man felt a shiver run along his spine as the dark, empty holes beyond the creepy mask kept staring at him and without diverting his gaze Shinichi took the note, making sure to stay soundless; he'd discovered that Snake hated silence the second time he delivered his loot, especially if he just stood still as a statue and stared at him.  
"See you around," Shinichi smirked as he walked past the member and looked over the edge, seeing which way Kaitou KID most likely went.  
"Never," Snake muttered as he saw how Night Baron fell over the edge and then hurried to the door to get the diamond to Whisky for the last time before he travelled to America.

KID's right arm had been struck from the front so it was more likely that the thief had flown to the west than the east, Shinichi judged by the winds, knowing that Snake would've shot him again if he'd gone north. The thief used his grappling hook to slow down his fall to the much lower buildings and then ran along the roof, jumping while looking down into the alley and then continued across the next rooftop, feeling how worry stirred in his stomach. He ran with the hope that he'd see the other thief, but gasping for air he was forced to stop in fear that he wouldn't be able to make the jump between the buildings as his leg muscles were trembling from exhaustion. A low cry in pain reached his ears and Shinichi ran to the other edge of the building, seeing a dark figure in the alley doing something to his upper right arm, and immediately recognised Kaitou KID's fluid movements as the person stapled a bit; somehow the magician had the ability to even make losing his balance graceful. The relief of seeing the other well enough to stand made Shinichi smile as he quickly closed the end of his grappling hook to the railing and then reeled himself down. As he touched the ground the young man in the alley spun around with a panicked expression, before his look became neutral as he remembered his poker face.

"Night Baron," KID's voice came from the person with the monocle over his eye and dressed in a long-sleeved, grey sweater with a white rag around the injury and Shinichi supervised him, realising that he must've crashed into the alley as he was covered in a bit of trash, "what are you doing here?"  
"I came to help you," the westerner answered honestly and walked up to him.  
"I don't need your help," KID growled and turned his body to shield his injury from the approaching thief, "I can take care of this myself. I'll be fine."  
"Okay, how are you going to deal with this injury?"  
"I'll go home, take the bullet out with a pair of tweezers and bandage it."  
"I'm not convinced, and I'll only give you two options," Shinichi stated seriously, feeling the need to make sure that his rival didn't accidently die from an infection, "you will follow with me now, but either you do it of your own free will or asleep, so that I can take care of you since the adrenalin will wear off in a while." The western thief took off his mantle and swung it around the magician before fastening it in front, hiding his dirty clothes and tightly wrapped injury, and began pushing him towards the way out of the alley.

"I never consented to this! I don't need your help!" Kaito snapped and watched how the hat was taken away from the blonde's head, unaware that it was a wig to make him look more western, and then saw that the white mask vanished from the thief's face, revealing a serious expression that showed that no matter how much he struggled Night Baron was going to take care of him, "what about your clothes? You'll be recognised!"

"Worry about making sure that your injury doesn't get worse, and let me deal with the rest," the westerner smirked confidently and pulled off his black mask that was hiding his nose, upper face and identity, making Kaito turn away, afraid to look at his face; it wasn't how they were supposed to know each other. They were supposed to only know the other's personality and not what they looked like.

"I'm disappointed!" Shinichi complained loudly as they exited the alley, and mixed in with the crowds while making their way to the road, "I never got to see Night Baron... But he's surely going to be out soon enough." He waved to a cab and saw how it began to cross the lanes between them to get to him. "So will you be following to the next heist, or do you think that it's boring?" Shinichi continued as the car stopped and the doors automatically opened to allow them to step in. As he said the name of his hotel that was lying ten minutes away he forgot his slightly American accent and continued talking fluent Japanese. "Although, most of the heists are pretty fascinating, and you can see them fighting. It's almost like in a movie. Can you even imagine what it would be like knowing how to fight like they do?"

All the way to the hotel Shinichi gushed over himself and KID, not leaving enough silence for the other to answer and kept a watchful eye on the magician, seeing that he was pretending to be tired while avoiding looking anywhere near him, but as they got out Shinichi saw that his jaw was clenched from the strain of keeping himself from showing pain. He let the conversation die out and only led the other thief into the hotel.  
"Good evening, Tanoka-kun," Shinichi greeted with a calm smile as he approached the reception desk and saw that the young man sent a glance to Kaito.  
"You know the policy, Moriarty-sama," Tanoka responded quietly as he took the thief's key from a locked box behind the desk.  
"I'm sure that a five followed by four zeroes can make you turn a blind eye for a single night," the thief bargained quietly with a smile and let the edge of one bill be visible underneath his hand as he placed it on the desk.  
"I'm sure it will," Tanoka agreed and made Shinichi push the hidden money to him, as if he was reaching for the key that the young man was placing down with his hand covering it. With a quick flick of his thumb the money ended up underneath the workers hand and Shinichi took the key.  
"I always appreciate understanding people who knows what's important, excellent service," the thief murmured and escorted his foe to the elevator and got in.

"How bad is it?" he questioned worriedly as the doors closed.  
"In pain," KID forced out in a strained voice, letting him know that he didn't really want to talk as he looked to the floor, feeling the elevator begin to move.  
"Just a few more minutes," Shinichi murmured, pressing a code on the buttons and made the elevator pass floors where it otherwise would've stopped.

The western thief frowned at his own feelings as they reached the floor; he was so worried that he could feel his stomach twist painfully. It was as if it was his mother or father that had been injured; it was the same kind of strength on his concern. As soon as he'd gotten the door open he ran into his bedroom with a double bed and a desk. He pulled out a large, square case from underneath the desk and opened it to pull out a plastic sheet that he with a flick of his arms placed over the bed. With a speed that surprised even himself he placed his upper mask over his face and ripped off the clothing on his torso so that he didn't have to bother with folding up his sleeves.

"Get on the bed," he commanded as he turned on the strong reading light and moved the case so that it was placed beside the night table. He saw that Kaitou KID had taken off the black mantle and obeyed him while he pulled out his instruments, protected inside a cocoon of antibacterial cloths. He rolled it open without touching them and placed two small bottles from the case beside the equipment, followed by two needles and a sealed plastic bag, containing an IV bag and IV lines.

Kaito couldn't help but to stare at the equipment that was being placed beside him; scissors, surgical wire and a large, plastic box without a lid that was pulled out from underneath the bed before the western thief took out a towel and positioned it under his arm. He placed a large bottle on the night table and put a surgical mask over his face before using the large bottle to clean his hands. With quick movements Night Baron was sitting beside him and cut off the sleeve beside the shoulder with the scissors before cutting the fabric just below where Kaito had wrapped rags around the wound to stop the bleeding. In a second the lower part of the sleeve was lying in the plastic container.

"Are you allergic to any kind of drugs?" Night Baron suddenly asked and wetted a napkin with the fluid inside the large bottle and cleaned the inside of the magician's elbow.  
"No, I've been injured before so I've gotten drugs before," Kaito responded, uncertain if he should trust the thief and studied the other's fast and secure movements through his own pain.  
"Good," the westerner cooed as he pulled up one of the needles and removed the plastic top that was protecting the tip. "I'm going to give you some morphine," he explained as he pushed the needle through the top of one of the small glass containers and held it upside down as he filled it with 3 mg of the drug, making sure that it didn't contain air before grabbing a hold of the arm and inserted the needle into it, finding a blood vessel and carefully injected him, "and now I'll give you a preventive drug, to stop the infection that's probably developing." Night Baron threw the needle into the plastic box and took up the next one, sticking it into the next bottle and injected the arm at the same place before he placed a small adhesive plaster on top. "You are free to stay in this room during the night," he informed as Kaito's mind began to feel fuzzy as the pain vanished and his body relaxed while he observed how the thief washed his hands again, "I'll watch over you."  
"Okay," the magician whispered, feeling safe in the other's company, and stared at how Night Baron untied the rags that were stopping the bleeding and pulled them off before they made the needles company in the plastic box.

With concentrated eyes Shinichi watched the injury in the strong light and opened the plastic with the IV lines and IV bag, containing sterile saline. He cleaned his hands again and pulled on a pair of gloves before taking one of the surgical forceps and carefully entered the wound, feeling the bullet that had lodged itself there. Breathing calmly he carefully grabbed the bullet and pulled it out, hearing the magician hum and sent a glance to his face, realising that his eyes seemed to want to fall shut; maybe he should've just given him 2 mg morphine instead of 3, but what was done was done. The bullet was dropped into the container and Shinichi placed the instrument inside the protective plastic of the IV bag as he grabbed the contents. He used one hand to place the towel better underneath the magician, so that the blood wouldn't stain the carpeted floor and then began cleaning out the wound with the saline, until he was happy with the result. He threw the bag in the plastic box and quickly cleaned his gloves before he took up the needle driver and the suture needle with the strong, surgical thread. With careful moves he made a couple of stitches, closing the wound and then cleaned the outside before wrapping it in clean bandages.

"How are you feeling?" Shinichi wondered as he finished, seeing that the magician gave him his attention and looked as if he just realised that there was someone else in the room with him.  
"I like your eyes," the drugged thief confessed, but didn't answer Shinichi's question, "they're blue. Very blue. Not green. Your assistant is creepy. But you have two of them. Probably creepy, both of them. I have one, but I could have two. I could have many. Fifteen."  
"You're funny."  
"Really? That's good," KID grinned a bit flimsy and then looked around the room, gaping at the window, "you have drapes!"  
"Yes," Shinichi answered as he removed the other thief's grey sweater, a garment which he probably had changed to in the alley, "most people have those."  
"Do I have drapes?" the magician wondered as he stared at the window, unaware of what the other thief was doing and just continued speaking.

Ignoring KID's drugged monologue about drapes and magical lands behind them Shinichi placed the bloody towel and shirt in the plastic box before he cleaned up a bit of the blood from the plastic that KID was lying on. He made sure that nothing dripped to the floor and after rolling the plastic sheet together on the other side he placed a blanket on the middle of the bed before he removed the dark pants that also had been stained, leaving KID in only his white boxers. With quick movements he rolled the thief over and heard a muffled cry from him.  
"The cloud is trying to kill me! What have I done to deserve this?" KID called out into the blanket while Shinichi wrapped up the last of the plastic and placed it in the box with the rest of the discarded items, smiling slightly as he listened to the thief's strange thoughts and then turned him back, "thank you, kind stranger, you have saved me from the clutches of evil fluff."  
"No problem," Shinichi grinned and picked up a new shirt and a pair of pants from his utility-bag before pulling the pants on the thief, seeing that they were too large for him, but it was better than nothing. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see how KID studied him while he pulled on the shirt and began to button it up.  
"You have blue eyes," the magician stated happily, making Shinichi smile.  
"Yes, I do."  
"They are so pretty," KID stated and surprised the western thief by placing a hand against his cheek and caressed it.  
"I see that you remember how to move now; that's a good sign," Shinichi smiled and placed his own hand over the magician's, for some reason feeling very happy. The hand was pulled out of his gentle grasp and then placed on his shoulder.  
"Night Baron," the thief smiled and made the westerner realise that he could pretty much see the other's face if it wasn't for the fact that he was focusing solely on his eyes, so he pulled out one of his own masks from his pocket and with a quick movement exchanged the monocle for the upper part of the mask, hiding KID's identity. The magician pulled in his shoulder, as if he was trying to sit up.  
"No, don't get up yet, you have too much morphine in your system," Shinichi tried and then let himself be pulled down instead of letting the thief get up, but that was exactly what KID wanted. Without hesitation the magician closed the distance between their lips, making both of the thieves locked to the other. The thief's unharmed arm curled around Shinichi's neck, keeping him in place, even thought there was no need for it.

* * *

A/N: Kissu~ Kissu~

* * *

**Answer to guest reviews: ami-chan from chap. 24 and 25  
**24  
Yuusaku is just that desperate. He's just grasping at straws as he knows how small a chance it is that he'll ever find Shinichi, especially when he can't leave his daughter's side in fear of losing her too. No, no one would look at a 5-year-old and think that they are 13; it's absurd, and that's why Yuusaku is only mentioning it and then beginning to talk about how it is possible that Shinichi has a fake identity; it explains why the fingerprints don't match, but it also forces on the fact that Shinichi must be aware that Yuusaku is his father, but won't come forward with it (Yuusaku knows that Shinichi believes that he was abandoned, so the more resistance Shinichi makes, the more convinced Yuusaku becomes). The changed age only gives one advantage; professionalism by experience and thereby respect. No one wants to listen to a no-name-teenager that thinks they knows everything, but an adult with experience; they get respect.  
25  
Hahaha, yea, me too!  
With the way Yuusaku's theories are he probably got more suspicious, but is forced to realise that what Shinichi said is true.  
Oh? Thank you! :D It's actually how I was taught how to write: "Try to keep the paragraphs short – the shorter, the easier it gets to read."

*Takes all the cookies in my arms and backs away* You saw nothing... _Nothing_...

**Answer to guest review: WWW  
**Really? If something is unclear I'd love it if you would tell me.  
Yea, Shinichi is really cute when he'd oblivious and trying to figure things out.

**Answer to guest review: Fluff**  
No, it's really tedious and you are forced to realise how much you've changed, or how much that was wrong.  
Thank you! It makes me really happy that you think that!

**Answer to guest review: ElizabethBathog  
**Hahaha! Jo, jag är svensk! XD  
Thank you for your reviews! I really appreciate them, and I can't believe that you reviewed to 'In a War Known as a Game'!


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